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Pittsburg officials flag rising chemical costs and lab-sampling challenges at water treatment plant
Summary
Plants manager told commissioners the water plant treats about 3 million gallons per day, chemical costs rose from $221 to $348.63 per million gallons from 2018 to 2025, and postal delays have forced overnight shipping of regulatory samples to the state lab.
City staff told the commission the water treatment plant treats roughly 3 million gallons of water a day and is grappling with substantially higher chemical costs and sampling logistics.
"We treat about 3 million gallons a day," said Chris Bernacchi, plants manager, adding that the system's storage and well rotation are constrained by water-right limits. He told commissioners chemical costs used in treatment have risen significantly: "If you look in 2018, we were spending $221 per million gallons that we treated. And then now in '25, it's $348.63 per million gallon that we're treating." Bernacchi said the plant is studying alternatives, including whether to move away from lime softening as part of a PER approved earlier by the commission.
Bernacchi also described long-standing lime-sludge disposal practices tied to lime softening and said changes in discharge regulations prompted the PER review to explore disposal or treatment alternatives. He said that historically the city land-applied lime byproduct in a location used since the 1970s and that regulatory changes will affect how that byproduct is handled going forward.
On sampling, Bernacchi said operators run hourly control tests on site while required regulatory samples are sent to the KDHE state lab; recent postal delays have sometimes forced the city to pay overnight shipping to meet holding-time requirements and avoid invalidation of results. He noted the plant uses in-house NELAP-certified testing for some parameters but still sends other samples to Pace Analytical.
Bernacchi emphasized the consumer confidence report (CCR) is available on the city's website and that overall the plant has not had failures in drinking-water safety. He told commissioners that the PER will evaluate treatment-process changes in light of chemical cost increases and regulatory compliance obligations.
The presentation highlighted the plant's 24/7 staffing model, operator duties, and the balance between in-house testing and external laboratory use as the plant prepares to transition systems and manage operating costs.
