Des Moines Metropolitan
Wastewater Reclamation Authority
3000 Vandalia Road
Des Moines, IA 50317
515-323-8000

Welcome to the
Wastewater Reclamation Authority

The Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority is made-up of 17 metro area municipalities, counties and sewer districts. They work together to protect public health and to enhance the environment by recycling wastewater and being the preferred treatment facilities for hauled liquid wastes.

In 2004, the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority retained the City of Des Moines as the Operating Contractor to provide operation, maintenance, and management services for the Wastewater Reclamation Authority

The WRA includes a conveyance system and a treatment facility. The conveyance system connects each of the participating communities in Dallas, Polk and Warren Counties to the wastewater treatment facility. The system includes 125 miles of sanitary sewer with pipe sizes up to 144” in diameter, equalization basins and lift stations.

The treatment facility uses a combination of physical, advanced biological and chemical processes to treat the wastewater as it flows through the plant.  These processes produce high quality recycled wastewater discharged to the Des Moines River, treated biosolids that are land applied on farm fields for nutrient value and soil amendment, and biogas utilized for electrical and heat generation.

In 2017, we

• Served a population of 0.5 million people
• Treated 22.0 billion gallons of wastewater
• Treated over 19,000 loads of commercial & industrial hauled waste from 81 different customers
• Applied 76,332 wet tons of biosolids on ~1200 acres of surrounding agricultural land
• Generated 27% of our own electricity from biogas (9.9 million kWh)
• Saved $1.16 million by reusing 706 million gallons of treated effluent for operational processes
• Performed over 25,000 wet chemistry tests in-house at the WRF Laboratory