South Wichita Waste Water Treatment Plant

The City of Wichita’s only source of finished water is filtered through 14 media filters located within the filter gallery of the Main Water Treatment Plant. Due to their age, the seals on the media retainer lids were failing due to the backwash cleaning cycle. Because a filter is no longer available for producing finished water once a seal is blown, an emergency project was created by the City of Wichita to replace all the media retainer lids and media. In order to make the repairs and allow the City of Wichita to meets its production demands for filtered water, our team was required to repair a filter every three days. The repair processes involved draining a filter, removing and disposing of existing sand, gravel, and anthracite media, removing and replacing the retainer lids, and testing and installing new media. Logistically, the project challenges involved removing and reinstalling media from the filter cells that are 10’ below the finished floor and then transporting all debris and materials in and out of the building while maintaining a clean environment.