Project History

During the past decade there has been an ever increasing awareness among the people of Iowa concerning the wasteful use of energy and the impact of needless pollution in our lakes, streams and water supplies. The federal Government and the State of Iowa, in recognizing these problems, has required that all municipalities treat their wastewater (in the most energy efficient way) to a quality which will have no harmful effect on the receiving stream. This modern attractive plant was designed and built in order to meet the more stringent water quality standards that have been made mandatory by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency- and the Iowa Department of Environmental Quality.

70 years ago, a brick sewer was constructed from downtown Maquoketa directly to the Maquoketa River. Raw waste flowed untreated into the waters. Almost 50 years passed before any serious actions were taken to treat the raw sewage. In 1957 an engineering study began the processes which would ultimately result in the construction of a $300,000 sewage treatment plant in 1960 and 1961. In 1960, a plant was constructed to provide "primary" (physical) treatment of the sewerage from the collection system before discharge to the Maquoketa River. The 1960 plant was designed for 20 year usage, and came quite close to meeting those design requirements.

Instead of the one brick sewer that was Maquoketa's initial sewage collection system, there now is over 25 miles of sewer main and 4 pumping stations to carry tile waste from homes and businesses to the new plant. 'lie original plant built in 1960 was funded entirely from user rates. The passage of time has brought. higher water quality standards, more strict requirements for waste treatment, and inflation. The new plant will have a capacity almost twice the old plant, but will be constructed at a cost almost 10 times as high.

In 1974, the City of Maquoketa, in an effort to comply with Environmental Protection Agency effluent requirements as administered by the Iowa Department of Environmental Quality, applied for grant funding to add "secondary" (biological) facilities to the wastewater treatment plant. Also, as a part of this additional work, all untreated storm flows that might contain sanitary wastes were to be treated instead of being bypassed to the River.

Planning and design work for the new facility began in 1975 and was completes". in 1978. Construction was began in 1979 and was completed in 1981. Tile treatment plant was designed and constructed for treating present flows and future increases within the community to a population of 8000 in the year 1995. The basic treatment facilities consists of pumps, grit removal equipment, primary clarifiers, biological treatment in the form of big-discs, final clarifiers, chlorination, aerated stormwater lagoon, anaerobic digesters, and sludge disposal (liquid or dry) on agricultural land.

The construction of a wastewater treatment facility is a very expensive project. `The total cost of the project was $2,866,825, with the U. S. EPA paying 73.50, the Iowa DEQ 4.9% and the City 21.60. The City of Maquoketa financed its portion of the project with General Obligation Bonds ($490,000) and Revenue Sharing Funds ($100,000).