Mission Statement
Duckett Creek Sanitary District will provide the highest quality sanitary sewer service in the most efficient manner while protecting and preserving the environment, quality of life, and promoting economic development in St. Charles County
History of Duckett Creek Sanitary District
The Duckett Creek Sewer District was formed in 1972 under Missouri statutes section 249. The district is a political subdivision of the State of Missouri. At that time, the district did not own any treatment plants or facilities. The district did however, have defined boundaries and certain legal authorities.
In 1977, a bond issue was put before the voters of the district. This bond issue authorized the issuance of revenue bonds, the proceeds of which were used to buy several small sewer systems from private companies – Water and Waste Utilities and St. Charles County Utilities. These revenue bonds were paid for with the monthly users fees from those persons within the district that were using the district’s services. Persons within the district that were on septic tanks, or that were not using the district’s systems, were not charged to retire these bonds.
During the early years of the district’s operation, there were many projects to eliminate sewage lagoons, small package treatment plants and septic tanks. Often, individual subdivisions would have their own sewage treatment lagoon(s). These lagoons were sometimes a nuisance due to odors and due to the low level of treatment that they were capable of. Therefore, sewer lines were extended that allowed the elimination of the lagoons and the wastewater was transported to larger, much more efficient, centralized treatment plants. There were also problems with many of the septic systems within the district. Because of many factors including the age of the septic systems, the soil types in this area, and the small lot sizes of many of the homes, septic system failures were common. Duckett Creek did much of this septic tank elimination work in concert with the St. Charles County government.
Currently, the district operates six treatment plants and approximately 50 sewage pumping stations. The largest plants use conventional technologies that have been in use for decades. Some of the smaller and newer plants use state-of-the-art “membrane bioreactor” (MBR) technologies. These MBR’s produce some of the highest quality reclaimed water possible.
Interesting Facts About Duckett Creek Sanitary District
- If all the main sewer pipe in Duckett Creek’s service area (not including lateral lines) were laid end to end, that pipe would run from St. Charles to New Orleans, Louisiana!
- On any given day the Duckett Creek Sanitary District will treat up to 12 million gallons of wastewater!
- The average household will send approximately 270 gallons of wastewater to the system every day.
- Duckett Creek operates 6 treatment plants and 50 pump stations.
- Duckett Creek’s standard treatment fee of $26.75 per household is one of the lowest in St. Charles County!
- Duckett Creek designed and built the first membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment plant in the Midwest.
- The treatment of wastewater is a natural process whose end products are totally recycled back to nature.