Wichita’s suburban water customers to stay under boil advisory until at least Sunday
READ MORE
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.
Expand All
More than 57,000 of Wichita’s suburban and rural water customers won’t have drinkable tap water until Sunday at the earliest, a city official said Friday night.
A major Wichita water main break Thursday afternoon near McAdams Park placed the entire city and its surrounding customers under a boil water advisory.
Under state and federal guidelines, the city’s water must pass a bacterial test before the Kansas Department of Health and Environment rescinds the advisory.
Before the water samples can be tested, they have to incubate for at least 24 hours. For Wichita residents, the advisory could be lifted by 2 a.m. on Saturday.
But the city’s wholesale customers — including Derby, Valley Center, Rose Hill, Benton, Kechi and Sedgwick County Rural Water Districts 1, 2 and 3 — must pass their own tests before the boil water advisory is lifted.
They can’t collect samples until Wichita gets the all-clear from KDHE under state regulations.
That means the earliest those suburban and rural communities could drink water without boiling it first is Sunday morning, assuming Wichita passes its test.
“They’re sitting and waiting for us to get ours done so that they can get theirs done” said Alan King, Wichita’s director of public works and utilities. “So what we’ve done is we’ve really accelerated ours — for selfish reasons, to get out from under the advisory but also for them, too, because the earlier we get done, the earlier they could start.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 7:55 PM.
