Northeast Water Reclamation Facility Odor Issues

(This webpage was updated at 9:38 a.m. Jan. 13, 2025.)

The Northeast Water Reclamation Facility underwent a number of wastewater plant upgrades and treatment facility improvements in 2023, which improved the plant's efficiency and impacts on the environment. 

Unrelated to these improvements, the city of Clearwater and Clearwater Public Utilities have received complaints about an odor-control issue at the plant. The city is aware of the issue and has been working hard to mitigate the problem, which is due to the failure of an anaerobic digester at the plant. It is currently out of service and will need to be replaced. 

Crews from Clearwater Public Utilities are working hard to minimize the smell as best we can. We are taking steps that should fix the problem within a few weeks. The long-term fix will take longer, however, and we don't expect the odors to be a problem after the end of January 2025.

We are making progress and have seen these successes within the last few days:

• Our Maintenance staff has refurbished six of the 16 diffuser assemblies (shown below). Some needed to be rebuilt. Our teams have worked overtime over the weekend and throughout the week. 
• Three deodorant foggers were installed Jan. 6, and continue to run at the plant. One is in the influent building; one is between aerobic digester tanks #2 and #3, and the last one is in the solids dewatering building.
• While the diffuser assemblies were working beforehand, the refurbished ones are working significantly better. The more air we can put into the aerobic digester, the less odors we will have.
• Crews ordered five air valves to replace the ones that are stuck closed. They arrived Friday, Jan. 10, and will be installed Monday, Jan. 13. Once these are in place, crews will be able to provide all of the available system air to the digesters. 
• The city's wastewater manager has been on site since the odor issues began, and recently she has noted higher dissolved oxygen levels and lower odors, both good signs of progress.

Here is what we are continuing to do to fix the odor issues: 

• Our primary filter system, the Salsnes pump, is off and will return to service at a lower flow rate later in the month. 
• Utilities Maintenance has mobilized last week and repaired some of the 16 air header assemblies in the aerobic digesters.
• Maintenance was able to retrieve another air header that fell into the tank and are prepping it for replacement into the tank in the near future.
• An emergency work order has been submitted to a city contractor to assist maintenance with welding, labor, and a large crane.
• We're going to continue to work until all the assemblies are refurbished. The contractor had a welder and crane onsite starting last weekend and this week to augment city utility crews.
• We are keeping closed the plant’s windows, doors and garage-style doors as much as possible, especially during the dewatering process of wastewater treatment. 
• We are getting quotes for additional aerators for the aerobic digesters. 

For the long-term fix, the city is now in the design process for needed repairs. Final designs should be complete around Summer 2025, and construction should begin in Fall 2025 and end in Fall 2026.