Koontz Lake RSD Wastewater Treatment Plant, Starke County, Indiana

Koontz Lake RSD is a municipal wastewater treatment facility located in Starke County, Indiana, United States. The plant serves a small community of about 2,250 residents, providing essential sanitation services to the Koontz Lake area. As a secondary treatment plant, it employs biological processes to reduce organic pollutants and suspended solids before discharge. The plant operates under the regulatory framework of the U.S. Clean Water Act, administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). For small agglomerations like this, secondary treatment is the standard requirement to protect water quality. The plant has a designed capacity of 829.00 units (likely thousand gallons per day) and processes an average daily flow of 829.01 units, indicating near-full utilization. Treated effluent from Koontz Lake RSD is discharged into local streams that drain into the Kankakee River, a tributary of the Illinois River, which ultimately flows into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The plant plays a key role in protecting the water quality of the Great Lakes Basin and downstream aquatic ecosystems.

The plant discharges into the Kankakee River watershed, which flows through northern Indiana and Illinois before joining the Illinois River. This river system supports diverse aquatic life and provides habitat for migratory birds. The downstream environment includes wetlands and floodplains that benefit from maintained water quality. The plant's secondary treatment helps reduce nutrient loads that could otherwise contribute to algal blooms in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone.