Many warnings, but no citations, for violating Wichita water restrictions, city says

The city of Wichita has issued 165 warnings — but no citations — for violations of the city’s drought water-use restrictions.

“Ideally, we won’t have to issue a single fine,” Gary Janzen, director of public works and utilities, said. “We don’t want this to be punitive. What’s more important is coming together collaboratively. . . . We really want to focus on education over enforcement.”

The city has had Stage 2 drought restrictions — which limits outdoor watering to one day a week in each quadrant of Wichita — in place for two and a half weeks.

Water levels at Cheney Reservoir continue dropping, despite recent rains in the Wichita area, and there’s less water in the lake now than there was at the start of August. As of Thursday morning, Cheney was 7.28 feet low, or 60% full — a 2% drop from Aug. 1.

Cheney Reservoir is about 25 miles west of City Hall in downtown Wichita, and its river basin extends west into several counties that are in a severe drought. Much of the rain Wichita has received has missed the river basin that feeds Cheney Reservoir, where the city typically draws the majority of its raw water to be treated. The city is now pulling more water from the Equus Beds aquifer than Cheney as part of its drought response.

Janzen provided an update on the city’s drought response at Mayor Lily Wu’s weekly briefing on Thursday. He said the city’s water use has dropped significantly since the restrictions were put in place, in part because of recent rain.

Based on numbers captured at the city’s pump station, the city’s treated water use has fallen 34% compared with water use the week of July 22 to July 28.

“We do want to urge caution,” Janzen said. “We do not want people to back off on water restrictions, nor will we do that.”

The water restrictions started Aug. 5. City officials said they will be in place until at least Oct. 5 before they are reassessed.

The city’s drought response plan calls for moving into Stage 2 restrictions, which limits outdoor watering to one day a week throughout the city, when the 12-month average lake level at Cheney is 69%. As of Aug. 1, the 12-month average was 68.4%.

Stage 3 restrictions would be triggered by a 12-month average of below 50%.

“Cheney Reservoir has a 600,000-acre basin that feeds it,” Janzen said. “Since 2022, we’re more than 23 to 24 inches below normal precipitation in the basin. We have estimated that if we get back to normal precipitation, it will take three years to fill it back to (full) conservation pool. That is why it is so important. We have got to keep moving forward.”