Wichita City Council members have approved an additional $7 million in the project budget for the city’s new water treatment plant that will open next year.
The opening of the $569 million plant near Zoo Boulevard and Hoover Road has been delayed until April 1st, 2025. Public Works Director Gary Janzen said the delay is because of the ongoing drought and because more time is needed for testing to ensure that the water from the plant will be safe to drink. The testing is expected to begin in November and it will take around 15 weeks.
With the drought, Janzen said this is not the best timing for the testing to be done, but it’s important to move forward to bring the plant online. He said the testing will be done with the least impact on the city’s water supply, and when the plant is finished it will be able to treat more groundwater from the Equus Beds aquifer. He said the aquifer is 94 percent full and the city’s Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project has restored the health of the aquifer over time. The city’s current plant has treated 55 percent water from Cheney Lake and 45 percent from the Equus Beds, but the new plant can go to 100 percent from the aquifer. Janzen said the new plant will start with a 50-50 blend and it can be shifted to treat more aquifer water later on.
Cheney Lake has been under 60 percent of its conservation pool with the current drought conditions and the city is looking to take less water from the lake as the drought continues.
