The Wright City wastewater treatment facility’s capacity is expanding from 500,000 gallons per day to 3.5 million gallons per day as construction on the project nears completion. 

The plant is operated by the Public Water Supply District No. 2 and the expansion is being funded in part by the America’s Heartland Packing facility, which began operations earlier this month. 

PWSD No. 2 Executive Director Kevin Dunn said they were looking to replace that facility when American Foods Group announced their plans to build their meat packing plant outside of Wright City and offered to help expand the plant to accommodate their needs, along with the demands of a growing community. 

“We are actually treating wastewater through the portions of the new plant that are in service at this point,” said Dunn. 

He said AFG is handling the design-build project and is covering part of the costs of the expansion. He said once completed, 1.5 million gallons per day of the plant’s capacity will be dedicated to the meat packing plant with the remaining 2 million dedicated to the Wright City area. 

“American Foods Group is proud to support the design and construction of the new wastewater treatment facility in partnership with PWSD2,” said Jeff Jones, senior director of environmental health and safety at AFG. “While this project was essential for us to open our new meat processing facility, more importantly it’s an investment in our new community. It addresses today’s water needs and helps ensure enough capacity for families and businesses in the area for years to come.”

Dunn said prior to the expansion the facility was under an order of consent from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for exceeding their capacity and acceptable limits for ammonia released at the facility. 

He said the expansion has brought them back into compliance with those regulations. Since they are now operating with the meat packing plant they are subject to, and in compliance with, much more stringent requirements. 

The facility uses the Bardenpho process to filter out nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. The four stage process uses bacteria to filter out undesired nutrients before the water is clarified, filtered and disinfected. 

Dunn said the remaining work at the plant is on the construction of equalization basins, which are used to isolate large increases in flow to the facility so they can be filtered and disinfected at a later time when there is less stress on the system. 

“It’s just out there to help us in case of more of an emergency type of flow that we think we would like to try to separate so the plant can continue to run without being washed out,” said Dunn. 

He said they expected to complete work on those basins in October, at which point the construction will be complete. 

Currently, the plant is processing roughly 500,000 gallons per day from public wastewater and between 300,000 and 1 million gallons per day from the AFG plant, according to Dunn. He expected their usage to increase as they scale up operations at the meat packing plant, but said with the increase in capacity, the facility is well-prepared for the future. 

“We’re preparing to take on any new growth that goes into that area,” said Dunn. 

Wright City Mayor Michelle Heiliger said the newly expanded plant would be a benefit for city residents as well. 

“That facility is just one more step into the future for Wright City,” said Heiliger. “Building utilities and infrastructure that are going to allow for more growth is a huge win for us.”