Notice more stink in south Wichita? Blame the weather

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The people living in south Wichita are used to the odor from the wastewater treatment facility, but it seems to be worse this year. They are not imagining it.

“Weather is causing some additional odor issues,” Gary Janzen, director of Wichita Public Works and Utilities, said. “When you have dry weather like this and some of the things that are going on, it doesn’t help.”

Janzen was at the Wichita City Council meeting Tuesday, explaining why the Council was being asked to approve more money for odor control chemicals.

The City Council approved an odor control contract with USP Technologies in December. The $800,000 treatment package was for all chemicals, equipment operation and maintenance and monitoring.

But because of the extra stink, the City is using more chemicals than expected.

“What we’ve done over the last year is we have ramped up our chemical treatment through this vendor to help with the odor control,” Janzen said.

The City says because of inflation and shipping costs, USP Technologies has increased the price of services by 5%.

It also says, “Due to dry conditions and weather inversions in the region, odors became more noticeable, necessitating increased chemical feed to minimize impacts to neighbors.”

Vice Mayor Mike Hoheisel, who represents Wichita District Three in south Wichita, asked Janzen if the City is listening to the concerns of people who live around Wastewater Treatment Plant No. 2.

“We are,” Janzen said. “Some of the things we have talked about recently, too, is we’re going to do some additional air testing in the area to make sure that we’re not missing something.”

The City Council unanimously approved an extra $800,000, bringing the total contract amount with USP Technologies to $1.6 million.

Janzen said the money will help with odor control until “the BNR (biological nutrient removal) improvements are made.”

“As we’re not going to get to BNR here until 2025 to 2026, ’til we can make the really good long-term improvements … we’re also evaluating our processes to make sure everything we’re doing along with this is the right thing for the next two or three years,” he said.

The BNR project will include state-of-the-art upgrades to reduce odors, and the need for chemical treatment will be significantly reduced.