Upcoming in Kansas City, Mo.
Drinking the Big Muddy
Presentation by Michael Klender, plant manager for Kansas City Water Services
Micheal Klender will share some of the unique engineering and water quality challenges that they face on a daily basis turning the Muddy Missouri into quality drinking water for their customers.

Presentation by Micheal Klender, Plant Manager for Kansas City Water Services
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Where – Westport Coffeehouse Theater – 4010 Pennsylvania Ave. Kansas City, MO
6 p.m. – Social Hour
7 p.m. – Presentation. Presentation will be filmed – After 7 PM, Please enter through Green Room Burgers
PLUS – This presentation audio will be streaming live on KCDV.tv!
(See past videos here)
Presentation is FREE and open to the public!
Believe it or not, 43% of Missourians get their drinking water from the Missouri River. The population of Kansas City, MO, makes up a substantial part of that statistic.
Despite it’s high turbidity and muddy appearance, the Missouri River is still considered a high quality water source. Of course, drawing water directly from a big river brings its own engineering and logistical challenges. How do they turn that muddy river into drinking water? What effects do agriculture and urban runoff pose to water quality?
The Kansas City Waterworks Plant draws water from the Missouri River near the downtown airport, upstream of most of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Kansas City Water Services plant manager Michael Klender will share some of the unique engineering and water quality challenges that he faces on a daily basis turning the Muddy Missouri into quality drinking water for his customers.
Directions
Westport CoffeeHouse – 4010 Pennsylvania Kansas City, Mo – www.westportcoffeehouse.com
The Westport CoffeeHouse is in the Westport entertainment area, midtown KC, south of downtown and north of the Plaza. The main intersection is Westport Rd and Broadway. From this intersection, go west on Westport Rd one block to Pennsylvania. Turn north (right).
OR you can get there from the intersection of Southwest Trafficway and Westport Rd. Go east on Westport Rd to Pennsylvania. Turn north (left).
Westport Coffee House is approximately one block down on the west side of Pennsylvania. Parking can be had either south of the coffee house in the large parking lot or just north of the coffee house alongside the building. Enter through Green Room Burgers or Westport CoffeeHouse.
Resources and Links
Dig deeper for more info on this topic.
- Kansas City Water Services website
- 2015 KCMO Water Quality report (pdf)
- Graphic describing KCMO water treatment process
- “KC to the SEA” – KC Water Services stormwater curriculum for 4th to 6th graders
- VIDEO – by KC Water Services
- “Kansas City water very safe to drink” – video and article by KSHB 41
The Big Muddy Speakers Series in Kansas City
is hosted by these wonderful partners!
- Little Blue River Watershed Coalition
- Friends of Lakeside Nature Center
- Missouri River Relief
- Healthy Rivers Partnership
- Kansas City Digital Video
Thanks to all of our venue hosts for making this possible! Click here for a list of upcoming presentations» The Big Muddy Speaker Series is also held monthly in Rocheport and St. Charles.
Recordings of Presentations
Kansas City Digital Video has been recording Big Muddy Speaker Series presentations. These are available on their website at this link. Some contain synchronized powerpoint presentations. We will be posting these to the archived presentation pages on bigmuddyspeakers.org. Thanks Micheal Morgan and crew for putting this important archive online! The Big Muddy Speaker Series is partially funded by the Columbia Ecological Services Field Office (USFWS) and the Mo. Dept. of Conservation.