Roughly 1 million gallons of water from sinks, showers and toilets each day flow through a maze of tanks at Perry’s new wastewater treatment facility.
Employee Mark Ellsbury likened the process to the human digestive system. The “teeth” remove large debris and grit to protect the equipment. Biological processes in the “stomach” and “intestines” help remove nutrients before the treated water is discharged into the North Raccoon River.
Water Pollution Control Superintendent Dave Gliem pointed to new anerobic tanks designed for specific bacteria.
“If you starve them for air a little bit, they’ll eat the phosphorus,” Gliem said.
The facility overhaul has been a decade-long process. Most of the funding came from the State Revolving Fund, which provides low-interest loans to water quality projects. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Iowa Finance Authority manage the fund.
Kayla Lyon, director of the Iowa DNR, said the North Raccoon Watershed is one of the agency’s priority areas during a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.
“This new plant uses state-of-the-art biological treatments to meet all the current Clean Water Act requirements. It also goes beyond the basics of removing both nitrogen and phosphorus, consistent with the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” Lyon said.
The state’s strategy requires large municipal and industrial facilities that treat 1 million gallons of wastewater or more per day to reduce their nutrient loads. Specifically, the plants are expected to keep nitrogen effluent concentrations at 10 milligrams per liter or less and phosphorus at 1 mg/L or less.
In an email to IPR, the DNR said the deadline is negotiated with each facility as their permits come up for renewal. In 2024, 33% of the large-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants met the total nitrogen goals, while 14% hit the phosphorus targets.
The City of Jefferson recently completed renovations to bring its treatment plant into compliance with the state's nutrient standards, and Ames broke ground last year on a $53 million upgrade, which city officials said was also needed to meet higher demand as the community grows.
Gliem said Perry’s new wastewater facility increases the community's maximum treatment capacity from 2.9 million gallons per day to 5.2 million. Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh said that's a draw for businesses.
“Because of this plant, we were able to attract JBS because I’m pretty positive that they would not have been able to come into town if they would have had to ship their wastewater to us at our old treatment facility. We would not have been able to handle that,” Cavanaugh said.
JBS USA broke ground on a new sausage production facility at Perry’s Industrial Park in October. The $135 million facility is slated to be operational at the end of next year and will scale-up to employ 500 people across two shifts.
