Sprawling across 413 acres in Cicero, Ill., just southwest of Chicago, the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant processes around 700 million gallons of storm and wastewater per day on average, but has the capacity to treat 1.2 billion gallons.

The Stickney plant serves 2.38 million people over 260 square miles, including most of Chicago and 43 suburban communities. It is one of six wastewater treatment plants and 23 pumping stations in the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC), and is the largest wastewater treatment plant in the world.

The MWRD of Greater Chicago’s Nutrient Recovery Facility at Stickney Water Reclamation Plant improves local waterways by significantly reducing waterway phosphorus levels through recovery and reuse of vital nutrients.

The project was instrumental in transitioning the largest wastewater treatment facility in the world —the MWRD’s Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, located in Cicero, Illinois — into a resource recovery facility.

Using Ostara’s nutrient recovery technology, IMI participated in the design and installation of the world’s largest nutrient removal process within a waste water treatment plant which is reducing nutrient loads to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Des Plaines River, Illinois River, and ultimately the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.