Wichitans will wait longer to start using water from new $574M plant. Here’s why

Wichitans will wait longer than expected to start drinking water from a new $574 million water treatment plant.

Wichita Water Works, the new plant near Sedgwick County Zoo, is already six months behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over its original budget. The latest deadline for “final completion” is April 1.

But the deadline is moving back again.

City officials now say the plant is unlikely to be fully permitted until this summer because the contractors have not yet produced “spec water” that meets safe drinking water standards.

The new plant won’t start pumping drinking water into the system until the fall, Gary Janzen, director of public works and utilities, said Tuesday at a City Council workshop meeting.

Until Tuesday, city officials had said the new plant and the Main Water Treatment Plant near the Wichita Art Museum would both operate until the end of the year. Janzen said that’s not a feasible option anymore because of lower water demands during drought restrictions.

“We had hoped for quite some time that we would run both plants at the same time,” Janzen said. “Because of the lower demands during the water restrictions, that’s not enough water to run both plants. (That’s the) long and short of it.”

Wichita Water Works is expected to become the sole water treatment plant for about 500,000 people sometime in the fall.

“I can’t give you a pinpointed date right now,” Janzen told the City Council. “I wish I could.”

Water treatment plant handoff

The date for final completion has been moved back one to two weeks.

“We’re projecting somewhere between April 8 and April 15 to take ownership of this plant,” Janzen said.

But more testing will be needed after the city takes ownership of the facility before the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will grant an operation permit to the city.

Wichita Water Partners contractors, a joint venture between Burns & McDonnell and Alberici, have been using tens of millions of gallons of water a day to test the plant while the rest of the city is under drought restrictions. The new plant is supposed to help the city’s long-term drought resilience by allowing it to be less dependent on Cheney Lake water than the existing plant.

“The final piece of this with the performance testing is they’ve got to prove that the plant can make what we call spec water,” Janzen told the City Council last week. “They’ve got to produce water to meet regulation.”

Janzen said the city will not issue a final payment to Wichita Water Partners until the water meets regulatory requirements.

The city recently added a question and answer to its FAQ page on the water plant outlining some of the issues.

The question: “Why is the testing necessary and extending beyond the City taking ownership of the facility?”

The answer: “The drought made it difficult to test the plant at the designed flow rates in the fall of 2024. Continued drought restrictions are creating capacity challenges for operating both plants at the same time, as desired. Scenarios are being evaluated to safely operate the new plant and deliver treated water to the system.

“The testing period will likely extend into the summer, at a lower flow rate and shifted more toward groundwater use when possible, until such time that safe conveyance to the distribution system is permitted.”

Another change order

In addition to that delay, at least one more change order is expected related to a 64-inch diameter pipe that was converted from an untreated-water pipe to one that delivers treated water, a decision meant to cut costs from the project. It required significant disinfection and repair to bring the decades-old pipe up to standards, and the city hasn’t said what the final cost will be.

That change is expected to come to the council for approval sometime this year.

Janzen also said that the city will forgo extending warranties on equipment at the water plant from September 2026 to April 2027, to coincide with a six-month extension granted to contractors in the fall.

The warranties were expected to cost $1.75 million. Janzen said the city will instead set that money aside to pay for repairs, replacements and spare parts in case any equipment fails. Some pieces of equipment already have failed during testing. But they are being repaired and replaced under existing warranties.

“During the performance testing that’s going on now, there has been some equipment failure,” Janzen said. “Not unexpected. All of those have been fixed. All those are being repaired. All of those are being replaced like new.”

He said he doesn’t expect the city will need the extended warranties, especially given that they would cover low water-use months from late September to April, when the plant would not be operating near capacity.

“At this point in time,” Janzen said, “if everything goes the way we hope it does and this plant operates the way it does and everything holds together, we might be able to save some of that $1.75 million where we would not have otherwise, paying for those extended warranties.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 3:23 AM.