The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Missouri NRCS offices awarded Conservation Innovation Grants to the Environmental Resources Coalition and Geosyntec Consultants for two projects aimed at introducing water quality trading concepts in Missouri.
The City of Columbia, Missouri sought to upgrade and expand the City's regional wastewater treatment plant capacity from 20.6 million gallons per day (MGD) to 25.2 MGD. The treatment plant consists of an activated sludge mechanical plant followed by a 4-unit, 23-cell constructed treatment wetlands for additional removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS). The treatment wetlands system has been in operation since 1994. Geosyntec, in coordination with Black and Veatch Engineers, conducted an assessment of the treatment wetlands to confirm if an upgrade to the wetlands system needed to be included in the plant expansion project. The City also wanted to verify the extent to which natural attenuation of bacteria and ammonia was occurring through the wetlands system. These data would be used to predict bacteria density and ammonia concentrations in the expanded plant effluent for comparison to Missouri water quality criteria.
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