Welcome!

Our Mission Statement

"To effectively collect and treat wastewater, at the lowest long-term cost."

Brief Overview of RRWRD Activities & Functions

The District owns and maintains a majority of the wastewater collection sewers within the service area. The District's 1,100 mile-long (approximate) network of buried sewers conveys wastewater from residences, industrial sites and other businesses to the treatment plant in southeast Rockford. The collection facilities consist of gravity sewers, approximately 30 pumping stations, and pressure sewers. The gravity system consists of large and small diameter sewer lines. The largest gravity lines are interceptor and trunk sewers of diameters up to six feet. They often follow rivers, creeks and drainage ways. Eight and ten inch diameter lateral (neighborhood) sewers flow to larger interceptors and trunks.

Once the wastewater is collected, the District provides treatment at facilities located on Kishwaukee Street in Rockford. The District currently provides secondary wastewater treatment consisting of the following major treatment components:

Raw wastewater pumping station with parshall flume for recording the quantity of incoming wastewater to the treatment facility.
Bar screen and primary settling tanks.
Aeration tanks that provide for biological removal of contaminates from the wastewater.
Final settling tanks followed by chlorine contact tanks and the discharge of the treated wastewater to the Rock River.
Solids removed from the wastewater are thickened and then pumped into heated anaerobic digesters where the wastes are stabilized and methane gas is produced. Those solids will be applied to farmland as a fertilizer and soil conditioner.
The methane gas produced by the anaerobic digester is used as a fuel to operate a generator that produces heat for the anaerobic digester operation and electricity to operate the plant.

For more information about today's Water Reclamation District, Click Here.

For a more in-depth discussion of The Treatment Process, Click Here .

District Finances

The Rock River Water Reclamation District fiscal year is May 1 through April 30. The District has an audit performed annually, which conforms to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

District revenues are generated from several sources. Those sources include user charges, county and state property taxes, connection charges, interest income and other miscellaneous sources, such as permits, inspections, and rental income. The District bills a user charge to all properties connected to sewer. User charges fund basic operations and maintenance, capital equipment and infrastructure and replacement or updates to the treatment plant. Taxes, connection charges and cost sharing with developers and other governmental agencies provide sources for infrastructure additions and improvements.

Budgeted expenses for the up-coming fiscal year are used to calculate the user charge rates for the following year. The District's Board of Trustees then sets user charge rates by ordinance. An appropriations ordinance is also approved by the Board of Trustees annually, and includes the budget for the year.

History of RRWRD

The Rock River Water Reclamation District (District) was originally incorporated as the Rockford Sanitary District in 1926 under the Sanitary District Act of 1917. The Primary Treatment Plant was completed in 1928, a secondary treatment plant was added in 1954, and additional treatment facilities added in 1958. Use of vacuum filters began in 1968. 1972 saw a bond issue approved for expansion, and a pre-treatment program was instituted that same year. Finally, a nitrifying secondary system was added in 1996.

Today, the District covers nearly 88 square miles of Winnebago County and serves over 250,000 people in the communities of Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Roscoe, Cherry Valley, New Milford, a small part of Rockton and a number of unincorporated areas of Winnebago County.

For a more comprehensive description of the District's past, Click here .

Directions to RRWRD

     Administration
(Administration, Bill Payment, Engineering, Accounting,
Personnel, ITS, Plant Operations Administration)
3501 Kishwaukee St. Rockford, Il. 61109

     Wastewater Treatment Plant
(Plant Operations, Maintenance, Supporting Services, Laboratory)
3333 Kishwaukee St. Rockford, Il. 61109

Directions from I - 39 and I - 90:
Exit west onto US Highway 20.

Directions from US Highway 20:
Take Exit Ramp north onto IL Highway 251.
Turn left onto Sandy Hollow Rd. (first light)

     Administration - Cross Kishwaukee St. (at light) into entrance.

     Wastewater Treatment Plant - Turn right onto Kishwaukee St. (at light) Turn immediately left into the plant.
                                                                                              Check in at Guard House.