photo by: Elvyn Jones

A new water plant in the Kansas River bottoms about 3 miles east of Lawrence will start supplying water soon to thousands of customers in southwest Douglas County and northeast Osage County.

Early next year, a new water plant east of Lawrence in the Kansas River bottoms will start supplying water to customers living more than 30 miles to the southwest, said the president of a new wholesale water district.

The $9 million plant about three miles east of Lawrence on North 1500 Road is already producing water on a test basis, said Larry Wray, president of the Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 25. Sometime after the first of the year, the plant will start supplying water to about 5,500 customers in the two water districts it was formed to serve: Douglas County Rural Water District No. 5 and Osage County RWD No. 5.

“We’re down to the last 5 to 10 percent of what we need to get done,” Wray said. “I can’t say when it will be complete. It depends on the weather. We’ve hired two employees certified to run the plant.”

The plant was only one component of a $20 million project that built the infrastructure for the new wholesale water district, said Wray, who is also general manager of Douglas County RWD No. 5. Other elements completed since work started in spring 2017 include four new wells on the Kansas River, a water storage tank, water tower and a water line that will transport water produced at the plant to Douglas County RWD No. 5 and Osage County RWD No. 5. Douglas County RWD No. 5 is in southwest Douglas County, and Osage County RWD No. 5 is in northeast Osage County.

The wells, storage tank, water tower and water line are complete, but the water line needs to be flushed clean and thoroughly chlorinated before it’s ready for customer use, Wray said.

In February 2017, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment authorized a $20 million loan to the new wholesale water district for the new infrastructure in an agreement that forgave 30 percent of the loan’s principal. Wray said the loan was made with U.S. Department of Agriculture funds that KDHE administers.

Right now, the two water districts are the only customers of the wholesale water district. Wray said those two districts would continue to be the focus of the wholesale district, but the wholesale district may look to have a few customers from outside the two districts.

“It depends on what our growth is and if somebody wants to talk to us,” he said. “We would have to see how much water we have. I wouldn’t say we couldn’t take on a few customers, but we aren’t designed to take on too much.”

Douglas County RWD No. 5 currently buys from 75 million to 80 million gallons of water a year from the City of Lawrence for its about 1,500 customers, Wray said. Osage County RWD buys water from the Tri-District water plant at Clinton Lake and from the city of Carbondale. Wray said both water districts have committed to purchasing at least 80 million gallons of water annually from the new plant.