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Council funds $8.885 million in water supply projects including wells, pumps and communication upgrades
Summary
The Wichita City Council approved funding for 11 water‑supply projects in the 2025–2034 CIP, totaling $8,885,000. Projects include a fiber communications line to well fields, Cheney pump replacement funding, a river revetment to protect ASR wells, rehabilitation work and upgrades to variable frequency drives and treatment instrumentation.
The Wichita City Council approved funding and budget actions to initiate 11 projects in the water‑supply system, with a combined authorization of $8,885,000 drawn from the city’s 2025–2034 capital improvement program.
Key projects and purpose: Public Works Director Don Henry and staff described the package as system‑wide work that includes a fiber communications line from the well field to City Hall to replace obsolete radios; bank‑storage well revetment and erosion protection at an Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) bank‑storage well on the Little Arkansas River; phased pump replacements at the Cheney pump station that delivers raw water from Cheney Lake to the treatment plant; a new drain line to sanitary sewer to allow safer dewatering of underground reservoirs; electrical assessments and switch‑gear replacements; expansion or replacement options for lime residual lagoons; and variable frequency drive replacements and instrument/communications upgrades to better tune disinfection processes.
Why it matters: Staff emphasized that several items respond to deferred maintenance, aging equipment and site‑specific erosion that threatens pipelines. For example, river bank erosion has exposed concrete structures at a bank‑storage well requiring revetment work to restore and protect the ASR facility. The instrument and communications upgrades for Wichita Water Works were described as an optimization that can reduce chemical usage by enabling more precise disinfection control.
Budgets: Staff provided the CIP breakout for each project and recommended full funding to proceed. Examples include $1.1 million for well‑field phase‑1 river revetment, $1.5 million for a Hess drain line, $450,000 for Cheney pump replacements in the CIP, and $1.3 million for general water production improvements. The full list of project budgets included in staff materials added to $8,885,000.
Action: Council approved the resolutions and notices of intent and authorized signatures to initiate the projects.
Ending: Staff said the package will address urgent maintenance needs across the water supply system and position the system to support future initiatives.
