The City of Wichita issued a boil water advisory Wednesday morning after losing water pressure at its current water treatment plant and Hess pump station, a disruption that reached about 500,000 water customers across most of the metro area.
Wichita Public Works Director Gary Janzen said the loss of pressure and the advisory began with a power outage at the city’s current water treatment plant. He said the more-than-80-year-old plant was running on backup generators because of Tuesday night’s storms, and city staff was trying to find out why those generators failed.
The timing mattered because the advisory landed after widespread reports of low and lost pressure around Wichita, forcing water users to change routines the same day. Wichita Public Schools said there was no school for any 9 a.m. start WPS elementary schools on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and that students in latchkey at those schools needed to be picked up as soon as possible. Schools already in session and 9 a.m. secondary start schools continued as normal.
Janzen said the issue was not caused by a problem with the plant itself, even though the power failure and generator failure disrupted service there. That leaves one unanswered question at the center of the city’s response: why the backup generators did not hold when the plant needed them most.
For now, the city said water sampling is the top priority as it works to resolve the issue. Only KDHE can issue the order to lift the boil water advisory after testing at a certified laboratory, and Wichita said it could not give a time for that decision. The city also said water used for bathing does not generally need to be boiled, though children should be supervised so they do not ingest the water, and people with cuts or severe rashes may wish to consult their physicians.
The problem is landing at a difficult moment for Wichita’s water system. The current plant is more than 80 years old, and the city has already taken over operation of a new water treatment plant that is not scheduled to go online until the second quarter of 2027. That means the city must rely on the old system while it sorts out what went wrong Wednesday and how long customers will have to keep boiling water before life can return to normal.
