The City of Adel, Iowa, has experienced substantial growth in population over the past decade. As a result, the City’s existing aerated wastewater lagoon was insufficient to meet the community’s growing needs and more stringent effluent requirements on the Raccoon River.

McClure was hired to develop a comprehensive facility plan to meet the existing and future demands of the community. Through the planning process, it was determined to proceed with the design and construction of a 3.5 MGD Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) facility. Of specific importance to the Owner, the new facility SBR is capable of being expanded to 7.0 MGD within the existing land area footprint. With the compact footprint of the SBR system, the facility was able to be constructed on the same site as the existing wastewater lagoons.

The final design was completed, approved, and bid for construction in 2020 and construction was completed in 2023. The final project included the re-use and conversion of the existing lagoons for sludge storage and flow equalization. The new facility achieves regulatory compliance and provides capacity for growth, but also achieves nutrient removal goals for Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous.

In a separate project, which was completed in November 2025, a new Laboratory and Administration Building was constructed to provide operations and administrative space for City staff and operators.