Overflow Control Plan

The Overflow Control Plan addresses repairing and improving the Kansas City’s 150-year-old combined sanitary sewer system. The ambitious plan, authored by a team including BNIM, promotes improvements that transform the appearance of neighborhoods by using green solutions, while meeting regulatory requirements put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The plan meets those objectives over a 25-year time period by providing a planned list of improvements targeted at capturing for treatment, 88% of combined sewer overflows, and eliminating sanitary sewer overflows during a 5-year rainfall event. In fact, this innovative plan was recognized by the EPA as being one of the greenest in the country. Key program initiatives include: rain gardens and downspout disconnects, green collar jobs and workforce development, enhanced monitoring and modeling, development of the Blue River Watershed Plan and proposed public policy changes.

Active citizen participation is critical to the overall success of the Overflow Control Plan. To facilitate this participation, the City partners with neighborhood associations to develop a public education and outreach program that helps inform citizens of the problem and their role in the solution. Creating successful, sustainable individual projects is also highly reliant on positive citizen participation.