Watering too much? Wichita puts out call to action

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — On Tuesday morning, the Wichita City Council got an update on Cheney Reservoir and the City’s drought response plan. Council members also heard a plan to increase rates for people and businesses that use excessive amounts of water.

Gary Janzen, the director Wichita Public Works and Utilities, said Cheney’s level is at 63.9% The National Weather Service said Cheney is more than 6 feet below the normal conservation level and the lowest it has been since February 2013.

“Cheney Reservoir is not our only source of water,” Janzen said. “We’re not about to run out of water. There’s still a lot of water in Cheney. But looking ahead at projections, where we’re headed, the fact that Cheney level continues to drop, that’s why we’re looking at what we’re looking at today.”

The City went into Stage 1 of its drought response plan , meaning voluntary water conservation, in January 2023. Janzen said projections indicate Wichita will reach Stage 2 criteria by Aug. 1. If the city manager issues a public declaration of Stage 2, residents will only be allowed to water lawns one day a week.

Call to action

Instead of an official declaration of Stage 2, Janzen issued a call to action. He wants the entire community to help bring water use down by 10%.

“Twenty percent of our water consumption is outdoor usage during the summer months,” Janzen said. “That’s where we can have the most impact.”

His recommendations are for any City of Wichita water customer, including any of the towns and rural water districts that get their water from Wichita.

• Reduce outdoor irrigation now – limit watering to one to two times a week.
• Water just enough to keep root systems alive. Allow lawns to go dormant.
• Only water before 8 a.m. or after 10 p.m.
• Do not overseed lawns or plant new trees or shrubs this fall.

So far, the recommendations are voluntary. If water use does not go down, water restrictions could become mandatory.

Janzen said the drought response plan is for those using city water, but he hopes everyone in the community, even those on well water, take part.

City Manager Robert Layton agreed.

“There may be cases where someone for whatever reason exceeds our guidelines or our standards, but we’re hoping as a community that we take this seriously and go forward with a 10% reduction,” Layton said.

Janzen said the City of Wichita is placing itself on mandatory restrictions, only watering its lawns and turf once a week. The City will also stop planting new trees, shrubs and ornamentals.

“We have seen a reduction on our side,” he said. “I can tell you on park operations, just in the last year and a half, they’ve reduced their water usage by almost 50%.”

Raising rates for high usage

Another part of the plan is increasing the costs for people who use the most water. The City uses a three-tier system for water rates. People in Tier 2 use 111% to 310% of their average winter water consumption, and people in Tier 3 use 311% or more.

The rates for Tiers 2 and 3 are already higher than Tier 1, but Wichita Public Works is suggesting more than doubling those rates.

Janzen said 18% of water users reach Tier 2 and 2% reach Tier 3.

“This isn’t an effort to make money,” he said. “Tiers 2 and 3 revenues are the most volatile. That’s not a place that we’re trying to balance the budget. It’s part of our projections. We’re a lot better off having more revenue within our base rates in Tier 1. But we do think this can hopefully provide additional conservation efforts.”

He said that a rate hike could reduce Tier 2 and 3 volumes by half, which would reduce the City’s overall consumption by 9%.

The rate hike is not definite. Janzen will present the hike at the City Council meeting on Aug. 8. Instead of the usual Tuesday morning meeting, the Aug. 8 meeting is at 6 p.m. on a Thursday. If the council approves the hike, the new rates will go into effect on Sept. 1.

Can Cheney get back to normal?

Janzen said getting Cheney back to pre-drought levels depends on the weather.

“Our projections, based on normal precipitation, if we could get back to normal, is that it would take three years for Cheney to fill back to conservation pool level,” he said.

When Cheney was at its lowest level in 2013, the year the City developed the drought response plan, one massive rain event took care of most of the drought.

City Council Member Brandon Johnson welcomes the price increases. He said, this is all an effort to get to the opening of the new water treatment facility, which will bring the city relief next spring.

New technology at that facility, will give the city more access to groundwater than the current facility.

“I think April is going to be good for us to get there, once we get through the full commissioning period, and it’s open for use and fully supplying the city of Wichita, and all of our customers with water, we’re going to be in a great space,” said Johnson.

Until that happens, city leaders, asking the public to reduce their daily water usage.

Janzen said, as long as people are careful with their water usage, for 90 percent of residential customers, their bill should only be increased by about 11 dollars per month, if the city makes those rate changes.

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