Great Plains Facility

Our Great Plains facility was built for the purpose of groundwater protection and has been used to safely store hydrocarbons for years. Vaulted took over the site in 2023 and transitioned it to organic waste disposal with carbon removal.​

Location: Hutchinson, Kansas​
Start date: 2023
Job Growth: Employs 25+ (and hiring!)

Secure by design

Salt caverns have amazing natural storage properties that we can tap into. At Vaulted’s Great Plains facility, we combine salt caverns’ natural impermeability and self-healing properties with our robust well design, 24/7 real-time monitoring, and rigorous operations to securely contain all waste.

Cross-sectional diagram of underground waste storage showing labeled geological layers from surface to 800 feet deep. Layers include grass, soil, an underground source of drinking water, primary and secondary confining zones, an injection zone with a brine-filled salt cavern for permanent organic waste storage, and a lower containment zone. Impermeable rock layers surround the injection zone to protect groundwater.
A fenced-in wellhead and pipe system in a rural field, used for groundwater extraction or injection, with dry grass and a tree line in the background.

History of safe storage

This facility was originally built in the 1980s to store hydrocarbon liquids — like propane and butane — and maintain clean groundwater. It was re-permitted for safe beneficial reuse of waste materials by Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2012.​
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The site has maintained a strong safety record and has had no groundwater contamination incidents in its 15+ year history. We follow rigorous monitoring and operational standards to ensure safe, long-term performance.

“
Vaulted Deep has brought greater flexibility to our biosolids disposal operations. Their ability to manage disposal even during wet weather—when land application isn’t an option—has been invaluable.
Dillan Curtis
City of Derby Public Works, Vaulted waste partner in Hutchinson, Kansas
“
Working with Vaulted Deep allows us to reduce our manure stockpile while we receive some income proceeds to offset the work we do to keep our pens clean. It provides a great benefit with little extra hassle from the feed yard operations.
Taylor Hughes
Pratt Feeders, Vaulted waste partner in Hutchinson, Kansas
“
I like Vaulted because they have great people to work with. They’ve given work opportunities to not only my business, but to a lot of other businesses in the community as well. Vaulted has been very helpful to my business in providing consistent work.
Dale Nisley
D&T Hauling, Vaulted trucking partner in Hutchinson, Kansas

Investing in the local economy​

$1.8M to local vendors

like trucking companies, rentals, and office supplies​

$1.6M in wages

and employee benefits​

18+ new full-time jobs

created (and currently upgrading facility equipment so it can take even more waste and employ even more people)

Have Questions?

Biosolids are the carbon-filled organic material that’s left over after treating human waste (sewage) at wastewater plants. After being cleaned and processed to reduce pathogens, these solids are often landfilled or spread on land for the purpose of disposal. They are generally still pathogenic and often contain the “forever chemical” PFAS. 

Everything we take is nonhazardous — if it’s hazardous, by law we can’t accept it. Some of the organic wastes — like paper sludge and biosolids — can be dangerous if concentrated because they can contain pathogens and chemicals. Even overapplication of a good thing like manure can still lead to nutrient run off and water contamination. 

Salt caverns provide permanent, durable storage for organic waste because they’re highly impermeable and structurally sound. They’ve been used for decades to store liquefied petroleum products — including the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve along the Gulf Coast. Before Vaulted’s operations, the Great Plains site safely stored propane without any leaks. These caverns now allow us to securely store organic waste for 10,000+ years. 

At our Great Plains site, we’ve created 18 full-time jobs across field operations, administration, and data analytics — with competitive pay, benefits, and career development. We also partner with local organizations for hiring and source materials and services locally, when possible. In our first 18 months, we invested over $5 million into the Kansas economy. 

We enforce strict safety protocols, including PPE requirements across our team. The Great Plains site has an excellent safety record with no lost-time incidents. We also monitor site conditions 24/7 and submit monthly and quarterly reports to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), covering waste emplacement, cavern pressure, groundwater testing, and more. 

No. The salt caverns at our Great Plains site are highly impermeable and structurally stable, which prevents leaks. Salt caverns have long been used for storage of liquified petroleum products for this reason. This site was built in the 1980s specifically to maintain groundwater, and there have been no instances of contamination during the facility’s lifetime. Our team monitors formation pressures in real time and adjusts injection rates and volumes as needed to maintain stability. We would know within seconds if there were a leak.