KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Burns & McDonnell congratulates the City of Kansas City, Missouri, for its breakthrough achievement in successfully negotiating a more sustainable and affordable path forward for its ongoing citywide sewer overflow control program. This third modification of Kansas City’s consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice now shifts the focus of the program toward mitigating the cost of the overflow control program over the next 15 years while advancing achievement of the city’s environmental goals utilizing an enhanced adaptive management approach to optimize solutions. The city also received an additional 5 years to fulfill its obligations under the Third Amended Consent Decree which extends the program through 2040.

Strategic planning for the consent decree modification began in 2017 and has been strongly supported by past and present Kansas City leadership — a factor that was instrumental in this latest success.

KC Water’s Smart Sewer Program is focused on complying with the consent decree which requires the implementation of over 100 capital improvement projects within the city’s combined and separate sewer systems to reduce sewer overflows. Significant benefits for current Kansas City ratepayers and future generations will be realized by this third consent decree modification.

“The success of the Smart Sewer Program is a testament to the commitment of the city and the program management team, resulting in a long-term solution for Kansas City water,” says Ron Coker, senior vice president and general manager of the Water Group at Burns & McDonnell. “Kansas City’s focus on being on-time and on-budget through the first 10 years of the program set the stage for this modification and created the opportunity for Kansas City to invest in even more green infrastructure, transforming Kansas City into a marquee city for clean water and environmental sustainability.”

Burns & McDonnell has served as the city’s program manager in a long-term partnership that has allowed the city to pivot and adjust projects as conditions have changed. Currently, 13 MBE/WBE/SLBE local partners are making valuable contributions to the success of the Burns & McDonnell team and Smart Sewer program.

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 60 offices globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is 100% employee-owned. Learn how we are designed to build.