Lawrence monitoring drinking water quality after Topeka plant releases millions of gallons of waste water into Kaw

Officials at Lawrence’s Kaw Water Treatment Plant were on the lookout Tuesday for signs of problems related to a large amount of waste water that entered the Kansas River via the Topeka waste water treatment plant.

Jeanette Klamm, a spokeswoman for the city’s utilities department, said Tuesday afternoon the quality of Lawrence’s drinking water had not been affected by the large amount of waste water that flowed downstream from Topeka.

“We took the appropriate precautions and adjusted our treatment levels, and we’re continuing to monitor it,” Klamm said.

Klamm said officials with the city of Topeka notified Lawrence utility officials early Tuesday morning that heavy rains in the Topeka area had filled Topeka’s sewage treatment plant to capacity. That meant that additional storm water and waste water was flowing through the plant without being fully treated. Klamm said the information received from Topeka was that at least 8 million gallons of waste water flowed through the plant and into the Kansas River.

The City of Topeka said Tuesday evening that excessive rainfall Monday night caused the City’s Water Pollution Control Oakland plant to switch to a process permitted by its state permit.

“It allows the City to bypass secondary wastewater treatment processes in significant rain events,” said Doug Gerber, Topeka’s director or financial and administrative services and interim director of utilities, in a news release. “All water that entered the Kaw River was treated through our primary process, which involves screens and clarifiers to settle out any materials. The secondary treatment process, which was bypassed in line with our permit, involves microorganisms to remove smaller materials.”

Gerber said the secondary treatment process was intentionally bypassed from 2 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday because of the weather and that it was not the result of a system failure.

This is the second time this year that a significant amount of not fully treated waste water has entered the Kansas River via the Topeka plant. In April, Lawrence officials learned that about 3 million gallons of untreated sewage entered the river due to the failure of a pump at the Topeka plant.

Lawrence officials at the time expressed concern that Topeka officials had not notified them of the spill since Lawrence’s Kaw Water Treatment Plant is affected by water quality issues at Topeka and other points upstream of the plant.

But Klamm said Tuesday that Topeka officials promptly notified Lawrence of this latest incident. She said Lawrence officials received notification shortly after 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Lawrence operates two water treatment plants: one on the Kaw and one that treats water from Clinton Lake. Klamm said during these events the city increases the amount of water it pulls from Clinton Lake and reduces the amount drawn from the Kansas River.