Rogers, Arkansas Begins Improvements to Wastewater Treatment Plant

Rogers Water Utilities (RWU) has selected Freese and Nichols to design improvements for the City’s wastewater treatment plant, the Rogers Pollution Control Facility. The project will help execute a key part of RWU’s Wastewater Master Plan that Freese and Nichols completed in 2022.

The master plan aimed to help RWU gain insight on their wastewater system’s operations, identify problem areas and develop a forward-thinking and efficient plan to accommodate growth in the area. The treatment plant improvements include the essential building blocks for putting the master plan into action.

Because Rogers Water Utilities is dedicated to providing reliable services and protecting the health of their customers and the environment, the utility is investing in improvements to the treatment system, as well as increasing the facility’s capacity to be prepared as new residents continue moving to Northwest Arkansas.

Freese and Nichols’ support for Rogers in navigating its wastewater infrastructure needs is an important element of our growing focus on the region, which includes recently opening an office in the city.

Rogers Wastewater Master Plan

The Rogers Wastewater Master Plan provided RWU with its first comprehensive master plan and collection system model. This gave the utility more clarity on how their system was functioning and documented areas where investments and improvements are needed, both known and previously unknown.

A model of the collection system allowed the team to assess system limitations and define future projects to alleviate the deficiencies. The model provided the team with data on flow to the treatment plant and wet-weather storage needs, which then helped with capacity planning to accommodate future growth.

Rogers Pollution Control Facility Capacity Improvements Project

Though well maintained, the wastewater treatment plant has some aging assets. The wastewater master plan helped the Freese and Nichols team identify that the treatment plant likely needs new or improved pump stations, headworks and a new set of filters if the existing ones cannot be restored. The plant also needs improvements to its flow monitoring and equalization, or peak flow storage.

Conceptual design of the improvements will refine the master plan findings, including affirming the hydraulic process calculations, and sizing so RWU can move forward to construction.