Why a Special Commission on Water Quality Standards?
The Kansas Special Commission on Water Quality Standards was created by the 1997 Kansas legislature as part of H.B. 2368. That legislation was written by the executive director of the Kansas League of Municipalities at the behest of municipalities reluctant to spend the money to upgrade their wastewater treatment systems to meet the 1994 water quality standards on ammonia, a by-product of urine toxic to aquatic life. Three municipalities in particular were instrumental in the passage of H.B. 2368 Ft. Scott, Topeka and Johnson County. All three have aging wastewater treatment systems that do not even meet the 1987 ammonia standard. Topeka s Oakland Wastewater Treatment Plant also does not disinfect its human fecal waste before putting it directly into the Kansas River, polluting the segment of the river most used by recreational canoeists and their families. The legislature suspended the implementation of the 1994 ammonia standard despite evidence that the municipalities were inflating
