In June of 2021, the City of Wakefield received a warning letter from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment regarding changes made to water quality standards for ammonia in wastewater treatment facilities.

The letter states that as a result of the new criteria, all NPDES permits in Kansas are now being reissued with more stringent effluent limitations for ammonia. The letter added that a review of effluent history of the Wakefield wastewater treatment lagoon for ammonia indicated the treatment facility can not meet the new limitations.

Wakefield’s Mayor, Leza Chryssovergis, said the Wakefield City Council and herself did not elect to undertake the project, but were required by the KDHE to make updates to Wakefield’s wastewater treatment facilities. Chryssovergis said the project is continuing to move forward now that a loan agreement with the KDHE has been signed and the City is in the process of purchasing the land necessary for the new lagoons.

At the time of writing, the KDHE’s letter to the City of Wakefield notes that roughly a third of the existing municipal discharging lagoon systems in Kansas could not meet the new ammonia limitations.