Kansas City’s Third Amendment to
the EPA Consent Decree & Vision 2035

On September 27, 2010, a federal judge signed the original Consent Decree requiring Kansas City to reduce the volume and frequency of wet weather sewer overflows into local creeks, streams, and rivers. It was originally planned as a 25-year, $4.7 billion program including dozens of important projects, but it also resulted in several years of double-digit wastewater rate increases for KC Water customers.

The first amendment to the Consent Decree was adopted in 2015, a second amendment occurred in 2018, a non-material Consent Decree modification occurred in February 2020, and the Third Amended Consent Decree was signed by a federal judge on March 3, 2021 after several years of negotiations. This third amendment extends the final compliance date from 2035 to 2040 and outlines new performance criteria for reducing the annual volume of combined sewer overflows.

Why Did Kansas City Need to Negotiate Another Consent Decree Modification?

The primary reason Kansas City pursued a Third Amended Consent Decree was to address the significant burden on ratepayers to fund these federally mandated (but not federally funded) infrastructure improvements. Since the Consent Decree was enacted in 2010, Kansas City’s median household income growth has not matched previous projections. This was the driving factor for the City to pursue a Consent Decree modification to right-size our overflow control program to make it more affordable for utility customers.

The Third Amended Consent Decree also provides opportunities to shift priorities to improving our existing assets rather than just building new infrastructure, as well as incorporating an enhanced adaptive management approach to take advantage of newer technologies and practices.

	We need to address the rate fatigue experienced by our ratepayers, which is especially burdensome to Kansas City’s low-income households.
	We are reinvesting in existing wastewater system assets to maintain reliable service. Our aging wastewater system infrastructure requires rehabilitation to avoid future sewer overflows.
	Our technologies and practices have improved since the original Consent Decree was enacted, and the City can benefit from the flexibility and opportunity to use these techniques.
	We want to balance rate affordability with regulatory requirements. Improving water quality to protect public health and the environment is the primary driver for reducing sewer overflows. Rate affordability must support further progress in water quality improvement efforts without placing a high financial burden on the community.

What Does the Third Amended Consent Decree Mean for Kansas City?

With the Third Amended Consent Decree comes financial benefits to the City and our ratepayers, improved processes to make the Smart Sewer program more effective and cost-efficient, and schedule changes to allow for more flexibility while demonstrating progress toward reducing wet weather sewer overflow volume at multiple interim milestones.

Financial Benefits of the Modification

With the Third Amended Consent Decree, changes to the total program cost will slow the pace of rate increases. This means lower future monthly bills than previously projected. The City intends to raise rates between two percent and six percent annually to fund its wastewater system improvements to comply with the Third Amended Consent Decree. Funding of the original Consent Decree obligations would have required six- to nine-percent rate increases annually.

The Third Amended Consent Decree eliminates the requirement for construction of some very expensive projects through 2035, such as underground storage tunnels, which lowers the program cost to $2.3 billion through 2035 versus the previous total of $4.7 billion. Further investment by the City will be required beyond 2035 to achieve the performance criteria defined in the Consent Decree.

Program & Technical Benefits of the Modification

The Third Amended Consent Decree includes enhanced adaptive management approach that allow progressively increased levels of public health and environmental protections by implementing cost-effective green infrastructure for stormwater management within the combined sewer system in lieu of and in addition to CSO structural controls. This approach includes using improved technologies, innovative practices, and data-driven asset management to make cost-effective, efficient decisions.

A minimum of 480 green acres are proposed within the combined sewer system for the green infrastructure control measures included in the third modification.

The term “green acre” means an acre of impervious area — think rooftops, parking lots, sidewalks, and streets — that drain to a green infrastructure site, which then captures and absorbs stormwater the way nature intended. To date, the Smart Sewer program has constructed green infrastructure that manages stormwater runoff from 301 green acres, with more green infrastructure projects currently underway in the planning, design, and construction phases.

The Third Amended Consent Decree has a final deadline of 2040 for the City to achieve 85 percent capture of annual wet weather flows for a typical design year. In 2032, KC Water is required to submit a Further Measures Plan to the EPA that identifies the projects required beyond 2035 to achieve the final overflow control capture of 85% by 2040.

A built-in Financial Safeguard is included in the modification, which allows the City to seek a future Consent Decree modification if the City experiences a significant change to its financial circumstances and/or key program assumptions or projections.

Schedule Benefits of the Modification

To keep Kansas City on track to achieve the final overflow control capture of 85% by 2040, interim performance milestones have been set for 2024, 2030, and 2035 as part of the Third Amended Consent Decree.

Additional Resources