State lifts boil-water advisory for Wichita residents — 36 hours after major pipe break
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Wichita boil water advisory
A major Wichita water main break on Oct. 7, 2021, led the Kansas Department of Heath and Environment to place the city and others that purchase water from its system under a boil water advisory.
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In Wichita, it’s safe to drink the water again.
A boil-water advisory that closed Wichita’s schools and hampered many of the city’s restaurants has been lifted, about 36 hours after a water main break that had threatened to contaminate the system.
The advisory issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Thursday afternoon ended after all the city’s water samples turned up negative for contamination.
“The water samples all came back clean,” Assistant Public Works Director Don Henry said slightly after 1 a.m. Saturday, shortly after he received the good news in a phone call with KDHE officials.
City officials had indications that the water was OK by Friday morning when tests of residual chlorine, the disinfectant used in city water, showed acceptable levels across the system.
Most of the time it took to get the all-clear on city water was a result of a KDHE testing process that takes a full day to complete.
“Once the samples show up at the laboratory and then they’re set up for the test, once those tests go into the incubator, there’s a 24-hour incubation period before the tests are ready to read, because that gives the bacteria, if there are bacteria present, that gives them time to grow,” Henry said.
While Wichita is in the clear, several surrounding communities that receive their water from the city system remain under an advisory.
That’s mostly due to each individual utility having its own operating agreement with KDHE and having to complete its own testing period.
The systems remaining under advisory are: Sedgwick County Rural Water Districts 1, 2 and 3; the Cities of Benton, Rose Hill, Derby (El Paso Water Co.), Kechi, Valley Center and McConnell Air Force Base.
Also, Wichita is asking its customers to take a couple of precautionary steps, one of which is to run the water in the home about 10 minutes to ensure the supply pipes are fully flushed out, Henry said.
And, “KDHE recommends that customers with automatic ice-makers dispose of their ice and allow their ice-makers to cycle two times before using the ice,” he said.
The break that caused the boil-water advisory was in the vicinity of I-135 and 17th Street.
Workers have bypassed the damaged pipe and service was restored to all customers by Friday.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 2:22 AM.
