Stinky Sewer Solved? Osage Beach Says It's Found The Secret Sauce

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — There are those places you drive past, where everyone in the car looks at each other, wondering who's guilty.

Sewage gas leakage has been an ongoing issue in Osage Beach, but the city says a solution it applied to the worst-offending site seems to be working, so it's investing in more systems to solve the smell.

Last week, the Osage Beach Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to approve the purchase of a Vapex odor control unit from Municipal Equipment Company. The unit costs approximately $137,000, and it will be installed at the lift station off Normandy Rd. (between Case and Nichols roads).

"We already put one at the Sands and [it] is doing very well," Mayor Michael Harmison told LakeExpo. The "Sands" lift station is located along Highway 54, behind the business center that includes Panera Bread, Andy's Frozen Custard, and others. It was the source of ongoing complaints to the city about sewage stench, which could be smelled by customers at Andy's as well as drivers on Highway 54.

The Sands lift station's woes were blamed on a sinkhole that irreparably damaged a sewer main, leaving the city with few options. The end result was a rank odor at the lift station. But since the Vapex unit was installed earlier this year, the smell is no longer noticeable. The device uses ozone to neutralize the odors in the sewage storage basin.

"We wanted to wait to see how it did there before purchasing others," Harmison said.

The lift station on Normandy Rd. has received "numerous odor complaints," according to City Public Works Operations Manager Zak Wilber.

The city actually budgeted $2.1 million in 2024 for sewer lift station improvements, and as of July 18 it had only spent less than $500,000 out of that budget line.