About Us

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.

Operating Contractor

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.

Conveyance System & Treatment Facility

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 inches 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 reclaimed wastewater discharged to the Des Moines River, treated biosolids that are land applied on farm fields for nutrient value and soil amendment, and refined biogas injected into the natural gas pipeline.

What We Have Done

In 2022, we...

• Served a population of over 550,000 people
• Treated an average of 53.4 million gallons of wastewater per day
• Treated over 24,800 loads of commercial and industrial hauled waste from 90 different customers
• Produced over 88,800 wet tons of biosolids for application on surrounding agricultural land
• Injected 495,633 MMBTU of refined biogas into the natural gas pipeline
• Saved $1.124 million by reclaiming 685 million gallons of treated effluent for operational processes
• Received the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) Peak Performance Gold Award for 2021. This is the 12th consecutive Peak Performance Award for the WRA