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Water Services in Kansas City, Kansas
An aerial view of the BPU’s Newman Water Treatment Plant.
12 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | October 2020
Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions. James Epp: I am from Beatrice, Nebraska, and studied civil engineering at the University of Nebraska. Kansas City is a hub for engineering companies, so my best job opportunities were here. I moved here and accepted a job with an engineering consulting firm. I gained a background in water distribution improvements, hydraulic analysis, and things like that. I started at the BPU as a civil engineer, worked my municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE KANSAS CITY BPU.
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he Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) provides potable retail and wholesale water service to around 55,000 people in Kansas City, Kansas, and neighboring areas. It draws its water from horizontal collector wells in the aquifer below the Missouri River, treats it, and delivers it to customers via around 1,000 miles of water mains. In this interview, James Epp, the BPU’s executive director of water operations, and Steve Green, its director of water distribution, talk to Municipal Water Leader about operating in the age of COVID-19 and the utility’s plans for the future.
