The video below covers Wichita's new drinking-water plant, Wichita Water Works — not a sewer facility. See the sewer/wastewater section further down this page for the project that actually treats what goes down your drain.
Northwest Water Facility | Project Overview fromWichita Water Partners onVimeo.Two Different Projects, Often Confused
Wichita is in the middle of rebuilding both ends of its water system at the same time: a new plant that treats the drinking water coming into homes, and a separate, much larger upgrade to how the city treats wastewater before it's released back into the Arkansas River. They're easy to mix up because both are large, both are near completion, and both involve the word "water." Here's the actual difference.
- Wichita Water Works (the "Northwest Water Facility") treats incoming drinking water. It has nothing to do with sewage.
- The Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) project upgrades the city's wastewater treatment plants — this is the city's actual sewer plant project, and the one that affects what happens after water leaves your home.
Wichita Water Works: Where Drinking Water Begins
Wichita Water Works sits on 40 acres near 21st Street and Hoover Road and is designed to treat up to 120 million gallons of drinking water a day, drawing from wells, Cheney Reservoir, and the city's Aquifer Storage and Recovery system. It's built to replace the city's aging Main Water Treatment Plant, which has been in service for roughly 80 years. The project is one of the largest capital investments in the city's history, at a cost of roughly $500 million.
Major construction wrapped up with a ribbon-cutting in late 2024, but getting a plant this size fully online has taken longer than originally planned. In early 2026, the city identified a design flaw in the plant's clarifiers that required repairs and pushed the timeline back further. As of mid-2026, those repairs are substantially complete and testing has been going well. The current best-case plan has the city taking possession of the plant in fall 2026, followed by roughly six months of city-run testing before it goes fully live — likely in early 2027.
Because Wichita currently relies on a single aging water plant while the new one comes online, the city council voted in January 2026 to retain and convert the old Main Water Treatment Plant for emergency backup use, rather than decommission it. For more detail straight from the source, a(href="https://wichitawaterworks.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer") visit Wichita Water Works | directly.
What Happens After Wichita Uses That Water?
Getting clean water to a Wichita home is only half the infrastructure story. Once that water goes down a sink, shower, toilet, or appliance drain, it enters a completely different system: your home's internal plumbing, a private sewer lateral connecting your property to the city main, and then the municipal sewer system that carries wastewater to one of Wichita's treatment plants. If you want the homeowner-level version of that journey, a(href="wichita-sewer-your-home-to-the-city-sewer.html") see our guide to how your home connects to the city sewer | .
Wichita's Real Sewer Plant Project: Biological Nutrient Removal
The city's actual sewer treatment upgrade is the Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) program, a roughly $357 million investment — the second-largest infrastructure project in Wichita's history — targeting completion by the end of 2027. It's centered on two facilities:
- Plant 1 (Grove Street Pump Station): rehabilitated influent pumping, new grit removal, and improved odor control.
- Plant 2 (Lower Arkansas Water Quality Reclamation Facility): new advanced biological nutrient treatment, facility rehabilitation, expanded odor control, and upgrades to reduce the risk of force main failures.
The EPA backed the project with a $191 million WIFIA loan, which the agency estimates will save Wichita around $89 million compared to conventional financing.
Why Wichita Is Changing How It Treats Sewage
Wastewater naturally contains nitrogen and phosphorus from human waste, food, and household products. The next cycle of Wichita's discharge permit from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) requires significantly tighter limits on both: phosphorus is expected to drop from a current range of about 4–6 mg/L down to a 1 mg/L target, with a future target of 0.5 mg/L. Nitrogen limits are tightening on a similar path. The BNR project is how the city plans to meet those limits — the city estimates it will cut Wichita's nitrogen contribution to the Arkansas River by about 70% and phosphorus by more than 80%.
A Side Benefit for South Wichita: Less Odor
The city selected the highest available odor-control package for the BNR project, including chemical odor control at the thickening facility, an expanded biofilter system, and full covers on primary clarifiers and secondary sludge holding tanks — upgrades aimed directly at reducing odor for neighborhoods near the treatment plants.
Where Wichita Sewer and Drain Fits Into All of This
The city's treatment plants and municipal sewer mains handle wastewater on a massive scale, but everything between your fixtures and the city main — the sewer lateral running under your yard — is your responsibility as the property owner. A clog, a tree-root intrusion, a broken lateral, or a collapsed line can stop wastewater long before it ever reaches a city treatment plant, no matter how well those plants are running.
Wichita Sewer and Drain Service specializes in exactly that stretch of pipe: drain cleaning, sewer-line repair, and rooter service for tree root intrusion. If you're dealing with a backup, slow drain, or suspect a problem with your own sewer line, that's what we handle.