Perry ? A portable water tank “served its purpose” when it was used in relief to supply the city’s water last summer while the main city tank was down for maintenance.

Though the 18,000-gallon portable tank is still in place in a field near Perry-Lecompton High School, it was taken out of service nearly three weeks ago, said city maintenance superintendent Pete McHardie.

“As far as I’m concerned it served its purpose well,” McHardie said.

The city’s main 500,000-gallon tank was taken out of service in early August for a state-mandated inspection. Routine maintenance such as painting also was conducted.

In the past when the tank had to be emptied and shut down, the city had to continuously pump water through the system to meet customer needs, which leads to tremendous waste of water, McHardie said.

Use of the portable tank saved about 13 million gallons of water, he said. The tank was leased from Tomcat Consultants, Rosebud, Mo., for about $17,000, McHardie said.

Late-summer and early-fall rain delayed proper “curing” of the tank and caused the portable to be needed longer than the expected one month, McHardie said.

The contractor will remove the tank as his schedule permits.