With the development of the Red Bridge Subdivision south of Kansas City, Missouri, the developer was faced with the problem of providing adequate sewage disposal. The sewage system from Kansas City was not expected to serve the Red Bridge area for several years. This necessitated the construction of temporary sewage treatment facilities with an expected life from 5 to 15 yrs.. For the initial development an oxidation pond was constructed as shown in Figure 1. The oxidation pond has a surface area of 4.77 acres and a depth of 4 ft. The pond is currently serving 1230 persons or 260 persons per acre. In the summer of 1960 the oxidation pond became completely septic and emitted obnoxious odors. It was possible to maintain aerobic conditions in the pond by regular additions of sodium nitrate until the temperature decreased and the algae population changed from blue-green to green algae.

The anaerobic conditions in the existing oxidation pond necessitated examination of other methods for supplying additional oxygen than by sodium nitrate. At the same time further expansion in the Red Bridge Subdivision required the construction of additional sewage treatment facilities. The large land areas required for oxidation ponds made this type of treatment financially unattractive to the developer. It was proposed that aerated lagoons be used to eliminate the problem at the existing oxidation ponds and to provide the necessary treatment for the additional development.