FAQs

The Maintenance Division of the Water Department is responsible for restoring sites damaged by a water main break. Call (816) 325-7658. The foreman responsible for yard restoration will be able to give you a time frame and the type of repair that will take place. 

Report pot holes to the Pot Hole Hotline (816) 325-7624, please give the exact location of the pothole, the nearest cross street, and your name and phone number so that we may contact you if we have problems locating it.

To make the snow removal process as efficient as possible, city streets are classified in three levels:

• Priorities - Roadways that carry the highest volume of traffic. They generally have 3 or 4 lanes.
• Secondaries - Streets that connect priority roadways to residential streets.
• Residential - Residential streets that include cul-de-sacs and dead-ends.

The Snow Event Tracker is a map of the prioritized streets.

Residential trash service is not provided by the City. Please contact a private trash hauler for weekly pick-up.

Call 1 (800) DIG-RITE to locate underground utilities.

A list of current Municipal Services projects can be found on our website under Current Projects. If the street work being done does not seem to match a listed project, another utility such as Spire, Comcast, or AT&T may be performing permitted work in the area.

It is the property owner's responsibility to maintain a safe walking surface on sidewalks adjacent to their property. The City requires the owner or occupant of a house with a sidewalk to maintain the sidewalk at the established grade of the sidewalk, not above or below the established grade. Sidewalks must be kept in good order and clear of ice, snow, dirt or other substances that obstruct or render the sidewalk dangerous.

MoDOT owns and maintains several streets in our city including: I-70, MO 291, US 40, US 24, and MO 78 (23rd Street). 

All other streets, except those that are private, are maintained by Municipal Services.

Certain parcels of property within Independence are owned by Jackson County Land Trust. If you are interested in purchasing Land Trust property or need additional information, JacksonCountyLandTrust.org contains the most recent inventory and instructions. To view a complete list of Land Trust properties available in Independence, enter Independence in the City field and leave all other fields blank.

Questions may be directed to Jackson County Land Trust at (816) 221-3366, option 2.

It costs more to clean wastewater than to provide pure drinking water. If you visit a wastewater treatment plant and a water treatment plant, you will see how different the processing is.

Fortunately, Independence’s water supply does not need much treatment to make it pure. Water treatment only takes five steps. Treating sewage is another story - millions of gallons of wastewater are treated daily and it must go through fifteen (15) treatment steps of biological and chemical processing to make it safe and clean enough to meet government permitting regulations and to release it back to the environment.

Maintaining the piping system that carries wastewater away from homes is also different since the wastewater pipes carry flows that contain chemicals and solids. Sanitary sewer pipes are normally much larger and need regular maintenance to keep them flowing. The cost of sewer main construction per foot is more than double than for water mains.

The cost to build and maintain sewer collection systems, pumps, treatment plants and laboratories is millions of dollars. Government regulations on wastewater treatment are much stricter than in the past and more treatment steps are needed to sufficiently clean the water in order to protect public health and the environment.

SANITARY SCHEDULE FOR RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL/INDUSTRIAL USERS

HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE PROGRAM - Click Here

Call Municipal Services Sewer Maintenance Division at (816) 325-7727.

ADD LINK TO SCHEDULE OF SANIITARY SEWER RATES

See the CUSTOMER SERVICE PAGE to connect or disconnect sewer, water, or electric service.

We feed a disinfectant known as a chloramine residual, which means we add ammonia and chlorine to form a disinfectant that stays in the system a long time. Usually people that have fish aquariums want to know this because they have to remove the chlorine as well as the ammonia from the water.

WATER TREATMENT PROCESS - Click Here

Was your service turned off for non-payment, or did it just go off? This may be either a customer service issue, or an outage report. The only way to be sure is to ask if anyone else in the neighborhood lost their electric or water service. If so, report it as a possible electric outage or main break. If no one else in the neighborhood has lost service, call (816) 325-7930 for Utilities Customer Service. 

Our water contains approximately 0.3 parts per million (ppm) of naturally occurring fluoride. We do not add fluoride. Please contact your dental or health care provider if you have concerns about the need for additional fluoride. 

Utility bill can be paid through utilities customer service.

See payment options

Maps of water mains are kept in the Engineering Division at 17221 E 23rd Street S. For information over the phone, call (816) 325-7700.

Leaking toilets are oftentimes a source of wasted water. To avoid this problem, it is important to try the toilet test 1-2 times a year. Catching a leaky toilet can help reduce problems later on and potentially reduce your water bill. Here's a quick way to test your toilet:

1. Place a few drops of food coloring in the tank at the back of your toilet and wait 10 minutes.
2. If color shows up in your toilet bowl, then you may have a leak and we recommend following up with a plumber.
3. Ensure you flush afterwards to avoid any staining that may occur from the food coloring.
4. Finally, if your toilet flapper is worn out or torn, consider replacing it.