City of Omaha Papillion Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility: Emergency Restoration After Inundation of Floodwaters

The Papillion Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility (PCWRRF) serves the Omaha, Nebraska metropolitan area with an average daily wastewater flow of 227,125 cubic meters per day (m3/day) (60 million gallons per day (mgd)). After being inundated and made inoperable by up to 2.4 meters (8 feet) of floodwater across the site, the recovery team consisting of City staff, an engineering consultant and contractors was able to restore partial treatment one month post-flood and full treatment two months post-flood. Essential to success were teamwork, communications, familiarity of existing facilities, rapid assessment of damage and repair requirements, use of the City’s emergency procurement processes and extensive documentation required for FEMA reimbursement. Subsequent to the flood response, lessons learned from the flood event and recovery processes are being used to inform resiliency decisions to help prepare and protect the PCWRRF from future flood events. This includes evaluating critical electrical systems and the cascading effects of their failure.