The Metro District’s Northern Treatment Plant is new infrastructure that began operating in Brighton in late 2016. Thirty-four years in the making, the NTP meets the need for a regional wastewater treatment facility that was predicted by the State’s planning agency in 1982 to serve the northeastern portion of the Denver metropolitan area. The NTP successfully attains the four objectives originally envisioned for the plant in 2010:

• Meet economic development needs
• Build advanced facilities, using proven technology and practices
• Provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective treatment and transmission services
• Extend environmental stewardship

The NTP’s phased design provides flexibility to expand capacity as the region grows, while potentially eliminating seven lift stations. The first of these, the 32-year old Brantner Gulch Lift Station, was decommissioned and demolished in 2017, and the land was restored with native vegetation in anticipation of transferring ownership to Adams County.  The NTP currently is serving Thornton, a longstanding connector; and Hi-Land Acres Water and Sanitation District, which joined the Metro District in 2016. Brighton and the Adams County Regional Park are anticipated to connect in the near future.

These connectors are conveying flows to the NTP via the South Platte Pipeline. This 7-mile pipeline begins at the Brantner Gulch Lift Station site in Thornton and roughly parallels the South Platte River to the NTP.  A second pipeline in the early planning stages will connect portions of Aurora, Brighton, Denver, Denver International Airport, and South Adams County to the NTP.  Click here to learn more about the Second Creek Pipeline.