Omaha's $20 Million Plan to Turn Wastewater into a Revenue Source
On August 16, the Omaha City Council approved a $20 million Biogas Conditioning Project to capture and clean the gas naturally created during the wastewater treatment process at the Papillion Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility.
"We take dirty water and make clean water," said Michael Arends, the manager of water resource recovery engineering and remote facilities. Arends notes the facility treats over 60 million gallons of wastewater a day and covers an area of 600,000 people in the Omaha Metro. "The byproducts are solid material, which we stabilize," Arends said. "We make fertilizer of sorts and we get the gas from the product and we reuse that for energy." It's something they've done for 40-plus years to help the power and fuel the facility. Now, the city wants to sell that biogas.