Lecompton — During the past four years, water rates in this northwestern Douglas County community have skyrocketed.
The rates are up 120 percent. And that’s caused a lot of consternation among local residents.
And while they’re paying more for water, the quality has been, well, questionable.
Lecompton resident Bill Roberts prefers not to brush his teeth or shower at home.
“One day it comes out semi-clean, the next day it comes out looking like it was mud,” Roberts said. “Everyone is just fed up with it.”
Then there’s Nick Fergus’ pool, which was filled with water the shade of “old pond” brown. One woman who wants to have children is afraid to drink what was coming out of the tap.
In the past month or two, Lecompton residents have come before city council voicing concern with the rusty, brown water that has been flowing through the pipes.
The frustration stems from water bills that have more than doubled in the past four years to cover a $3.5 million water improvement project. That project is several months behind schedule and more than $100,000 over budget.
In just the past 18 months, Lecompton’s roughly 275 water customers have seen their bills increase by about 60 percent. Today the average water user in Lecompton pays $58 a month.
What Fergus described as “tea-like” water has been a problem for years, but the hope was that it would go away when the water bills went up.
“We are paying the highest rate in the region for water and still get that,” Fergus said.
The city received close to $1.5 million in community development block grants and rural development grants to help with the project. The rest is covered with a 40-year loan.
The improvements included replacing a 50,000-gallon water tower with one that holds 250,000 gallons, a move that will give the city three days worth of storage. At the water plant, a filtration system was put in place to remove iron and manganese, and a system was implemented to soften the water.
But the project went over budget when equipment costs were higher than anticipated, City Superintendent Justin Van Winkle said.
The city also had to buy more pressure regulators for the water tower than anticipated and run a drain from the plant’s lagoons to the river to accommodate the waste from salt brine backwash.
Unfortunately, city officials didn’t include any financial penalty for missed deadlines in their agreement with contractors.
Construction on the water tower, which started last summer, was supposed to be completed this spring. It began operating two weeks ago. The water plant upgrades got under way in January 2009 and were anticipated to be done in the late fall. It started producing water at the start of this year, but service has been off and on since then, Van Winkle said.
And this week, the city continued to work with contractors to get the water-softening system up and running.
So far, Van Winkle said rates aren’t expected to increase further to cover the $100,000 in cost overruns.
“Any unexpectedness has come out of our water fund,” he said.
Van Winkle certainly is aware of residents’ frustrations, but he believes they should see consistently better water quality soon.
“They were starting to pay for something they weren’t receiving, but at the same time we needed to build a little bit of surplus because of the new chemicals, the salt brine, there is more cost in operating the new plant than what we had in the old plant,” he said.
Comments
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The_Big_B (anonymous) says…
Were the water plant improvements done by the same company that has mucked up water plants all over Kansas, getting sued and settling (with a confidentiality clause, of course) for their low-bid work? If there is enough money for a post-audit study, that is a good thing to look at.
Meanwhile, enjoy your enhanced mineral content.
allamerican4ever (anonymous) replies…
oh lawrence is a lowest bidder town,look how long jobs take here, most contractors in lawrence employee's arent even legal usa citizens
mdrndgtl (anonymous) says…
That is journalism, bravo. Now bring it closer to home and we got ourselves a paper.
RoeDapple (anonymous) says…
"unexpectedness"
http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu...
mommylovesyou (anonymous) says…
i lived in lecompton most of my life and the water is ALWAYS a dirt brown color.. its disgusting.. instead of uping everyone's water bills. why don't the residents of lecompton sue the city. i myself have gotten sick with drinking the water and with that came a doctors bill, why not make the city pay for the negligence.
gccs14r (anonymous) says…
I have friends who used to live there. In addition to tea brown, I've also seen purple water out there. Crazy. They should have fixed that forever ago, or thrown in the towel and just hooked up to Lawrence.
BorderRuffian (anonymous) replies…
Hook up with Lawrence? Would that mean Lecompton's water into a high-falootin', blue-blooded, ultra liberal kind of water? No thanks!
smtwnresident (anonymous) says…
We are a 2 person household living on retirement and our total water bill is $86 per month.We buy all our drinking water and now since the "improvement " we buy cooking water also because our water has a pale yellow color.We in Lecompton pay more than Topeka for our total water bill,but bottom line is what choice do we have?
igby (anonymous) replies…
One person household in Lawrence pays $158 per month. Consider yourself lucky to pay $58 a month for muddy water. In Lawrence, it still taste like S**t at $158.
LadyJ (anonymous) replies…
$158, do you have a pool?
thebigspoon (anonymous) replies…
Do you LIVE in a pool? My 3br, 2 bth runs about 70$/ mo. You need some repairs somewhere.
gccs14r (anonymous) replies…
No kidding. The two of us run about $70 per month in summer, less in winter. It could be less, but we're not very efficient when washing dishes for lack of counter space.
igby (anonymous) replies…
That's the entire bill, sewer, water and trash and the yard meter. I have a 10,000 sq. foot lot to water with 4 young trees. This is a house not a studio apt.,
pfunk81 (anonymous) replies…
I pay 3 times more for the sewer than I do for water according to my latest bill. WTF?
LadyJ (anonymous) replies…
pfunk81 --sewer rates are set by your water usage during Dec, Jan, and Feb, give or take a couple of weeks, so the trick is to use as little water during those months as you can. Do not wash items that you wash infrequently during that time.
gccs14r (anonymous) replies…
Yes, water, sewer, and trash, two people, 1,200 sq. ft. house, 6,000 sq. ft. lot, $70 per month in summer. Don't have a yard meter, so all the water goes through just the one, whether for the yard or for us.
Lynn731 (anonymous) says…
With all of this, they painted Lecompton in pale blue on the new grey tower. It is difficult to see standing still, much less going by at 55 miles per hour. Once the system is working properly, if ever, they need to repaint the name of the village in a darker blue. Sounds silly I know, but it is just irritating looking at it. Getting the system to work is a first priority. We are on rural water, and our bills are always around $ 60 a month. Thank you, Lynn
BorderRuffian (anonymous) says…
They painted the Lecompton name on the water tower? Wow!!! I drive by the tower nine or ten times a week and I never noticed. Guess they ought to paint it a darker color. Maybe dark blue or John Deere green.
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
my grandma used to have water like that and she just bought a bunch of lemonade from the Jewel Tea man and all was well, nothing wrong with some tainted water. Lawrence has had bad water from time to time.
Tea and lemonade works.
somebodynew (anonymous) says…
oneeye - time to time is one thing. Everyday is another, espec. if paying more for it.
allamerican4ever (anonymous) replies…
well there are several districts that dont want lawrence water anymore so coriless will hose citizens for the money. or drill wells at the old farmland property