(AP) The St. Joseph City Council has allocated $50.1 million for three projects designed to improve the city’s wastewater treatment.
The projects include ammonia removal, combined sewer overflow improvements and a bio-solids dryer.
City manager Bruce Woody says the projects will help the city meet an Environmental Protection Agency requirement to reduce the level of ammonia found in waste by Dec. 31, 2016.
Construction is expected to be finished by the summer of 2016.
The planned bio-solids dryer will turn sludge into a pellet-style fertilizer, which could be sold to farmers or corporations.
The city also plans to build a grit removal system to replace the current one, which was built in 1965, and make the entire wastewater system more efficient.