Frequently Asked Questions
If you do not find the answers to your questions here, check out the FAQs on the JCW website at: https://www.jocogov.org/department/wastewater/residential-customers/frequently-asked-questions
or email us at info@jcwprogram.com
An Integrated Plan (IP) supports strategic and financial planning by examining an organization’s existing resources and future needs. It is a thoughtful, equitable and collaborative resource that promotes efficiency and reliability, identifies high priority needs for capital investment, prioritizes human health and quality of life, and minimizes unnecessary social and environmental impacts.
In 2019, JCW initiated a system-wide planning effort aimed at developing a long-term, prioritized infrastructure investment strategy that addresses wastewater needs and meets US Environmental Protection Agency and Kansas Department of Health and Environment requirements over the next 25 years. This Integrated Plan (IP) identified approximately $2.1 billion (in 2018 dollars) of projects that need to be implemented to meet these goals. JCW intends to continuously review and update the IP to address the community’s service needs as they evolve over time.
Projects identified in the initial 25-year planning period include:
Individual capital projects, such as those needed to build new treatment facilities and support regional growth; and
Ongoing improvement initiatives focused on getting the most use out of our existing infrastructure.
Now that the projects have been identified in the 25-year IP, JCW’s Integrated Plan Program is focused on providing the day-to-day staffing, communication, resources, and planning needed to implement the projects.
Over the years JCW has made significant investments to improve and maintain our wastewater systems. However, aging infrastructure needs, increasingly complex water quality and regulatory compliance issues, wet weather capacity concerns, and growing service demands will continue to require major capital investments into the future.
The Integrated Plan (IP) allows JCW to move forward with these critical projects in a way that minimizes impacts to our financial resources, staff, and customers. The IP approach is authorized by the Clean Water Act and provides municipal wastewater utilities like JCW with a framework to establish implementation schedules that meet state and federal regulatory requirements. By developing and implementing the IP, JCW can stay in compliance with the regulations while continuing to provide cost-effective services to our customers.
JCW developed the Integrated Plan (IP) to establish a prioritized and balanced infrastructure investment strategy that meets regulatory requirements and serves existing and future customer needs. The goals of the IP align with JCW’s mission to:
Protect our environment,
Serve our customers, and
Enhance our communities.
In doing so, the plan seeks to implement projects that solve the most critical infrastructure, environmental, and public health needs first, while allowing adequate time to develop a deeper understanding of future system needs.
JCW is now focused on implementing projects through the IP Program. The goal of the IP Program is to provide JCW’s project managers, staff, engineering consultants, and outside contractors with the appropriate resources and tools needed to complete the identified projects on time and on budget.
The Integrated Plan (IP) focuses on implementing projects that improve water quality in our streams and rivers, provide important human health protections for our citizens, and maintain a high level of service for our customers. Specifically, the IP outlines JCW’s approach for:
Rehabilitating old pipes, manholes, pumping, and treatment facilities to continue to effectively convey and treat wastewater for our existing customers.
Resolving precipitation-related flow management challenges that currently cause occasional sewer overflows, building backups, and other unplanned discharges throughout the system during major wet weather events.
Proactively preparing for system expansion and improvement efforts needed to support continued growth and redevelopment; and
Beneficially reusing waste byproducts to minimize environmental impacts, reduce operating costs, and more efficiently use resources.
Projects included in the Integrated Plan (IP) were identified based on a number of information sources, including previous engineering studies, JCW’s long-term operations and maintenance data, computer modeling evaluations, regulatory assessments, staff input, and customer feedback. Infrastructure improvements were then grouped into the following categories:
Major Facility Upgrades – These include significant capital projects that will be needed to improve treatment capacities to meet service demands and regulatory requirements at JCW’s six wastewater treatment facilities.
Facility and Pump Station Renewal Projects – This category includes projects needed to repair or replace aging treatment facility and pump station equipment before it fails and negatively impacts our customers or the environment.
Collection System Renewal Projects – Similar to the facility renewal projects, this category includes projects needed to repair or replace aging sewer lines and manholes before they fail and negatively impact our customers or the environment.
Capacity Upgrades – These projects include upgrades to the existing collection system in key areas to support redevelopment efforts and more effectively convey wastewater to the treatment facilities during wet weather conditions.
Expansion Projects – These projects include additions to the collection system to support new development in undeveloped or underserved areas.
Planning Projects – This category includes efforts needed to refine existing cost estimates and identify new solutions as service and regulatory demands change over time.
To develop implementation schedules for all of the projects in these categories, JCW developed a ranking system that scored each project based on its anticipated environmental and community benefits. Projects that generate the most benefit received the highest score and were generally prioritized early in the implementation schedule, while low-benefit projects were generally deferred.
Before Integrated Planning (IP) was endorsed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and included in the Clean Water Act, utility managers were generally expected to meet individual regulatory requirements on a fixed schedule, regardless of cost and without full consideration of all the obligations that a utility or a community may be facing. This narrow regulatory structure often forced utility managers to significantly increase user rates over a short period of time to satisfy regulatory requirements, rather than efficiently manage community resources by prioritizing and resolving the most critical infrastructure, environmental, and public health issues first.
As outlined in the IP report, JCW faces a number of infrastructure and regulatory demands that will require major capital investments over the coming years. Through the IP process, JCW was able to avoid significant, short-term rate impacts on our customers by establishing a balanced, long-term investment strategy that can be sustained through moderate rate increases over time. As the IP evolves over time, JCW will continue to identify and prioritize engineering alternatives and cost saving technologies that deliver savings to our customers.
The Integrated Plan (IP) currently includes $2.1 billion (in 2018 dollars) of projects that need to be implemented over the next 25-years. JCW intends to continuously review and update the IP projects and cost projections to address the community’s service needs as they evolve over time.
Information about Residential billing and JCW's rates (including the annual rate brochure) is located on the JCW website at:
https://www.jocogov.org/department/wastewater/residential-customers/rates-2021-residential-billing
Information about Commercial sewer rates is located on the JCW website at:
https://www.jocogov.org/department/wastewater/commercial-customers/commercial-sewer-rates
Project information is available on the Projects page:
Program information is available on the Programs page:
25 Years is Initial Schedule for Implementation.
Content will be updated as project develops, please check back.
To see if you live near an area that will have construction or program impacts, go to the Interactive Project Map and enter your address.
Content will be updated as project develops, please check back.
Content will be updated as project develops, please check back.
Content will be updated as project develops, please check back.
Odor control is a big concern for many residents and is a priority of the Program.
Content will be updated as project develops, please check back.