City of Olathe Compost Facility

The city of Olathe manages yard waste for its approximately 145,000 residents. The current 5.75-acre composting facility is in an area that was previously used as a municipal landfill and later converted into a construction and demolition waste landfill. To maximize land already owned, the city constructed a composting facility on top of a capped landfill.

As the site grew, it quickly experienced a range of challenges due to site restrictions and ineffective contact water management. To address these challenges and bring the facility into regulatory compliance, the city selected TREKK to find a solution to either expand the current facility or relocate it to another site. After assessing various repair options, the city elected to relocate the facility to alleviate site constraints, improve operations and maintenance and better meet regulatory compliance.

With no published text or standard design practices, TREKK and the city’s engineering, operations and maintenance staff came together to define design goals, constraints and opportunities to design and successfully relocate and reconfigure this facility into an environmentally friendly, functional yard waste compost campus adjacent to a biosolids handling facility.

TREKK worked closely with city staff, as well as three bureaus of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, to ensure that the final design met the needs of all stakeholders and exceeded best practices for stormwater management design. Once the regulatory compliance requirements were understood, TREKK developed design criteria, site restrictions and operational and stormwater management goals.

The project and campus serve as a model for innovative stormwater management and water quality improvements. The new compost facility can manage approximately 460,000 cubic feet of yard waste. It consolidates yard waste recycling into usable and affordable mulch for the community, rather than sending it to landfills. This ultimately reduces nutrient stream loading and repurposes nutrients into mulch for beneficial community use.

The city and TREKK designed beyond regional stormwater management policies to mitigate adverse impacts to an adjacent stream, improving water quality and reducing peak runoff, while preserving and enhancing natural areas.

Overall, this award-winning project improves facility operations, supports future growth and consolidates compost facilities into a campus while improving water quality and being good stewards of the environment.