BY KEITH LIPPOLDT

klippoldt@gbtribune.com

Since March of 2021, the Barton County Rural Water District No. 2 has been experiencing high nitrate levels in its well, exceeding KDHE limits. Several members associated with the district attended the Barton County Commissioner’s Agenda meeting Tuesday morning to update commissioners on funding for a new well. Besides the high nitrate levels, the biggest problem is the cost of developing the new source - $980,000.

Barton County Rural Water District No. 2 Chairman James Kuhlman was the first to address the commissioners, giving a brief history of the District and the residents and businesses it serves.

“We were formed back in 1974, so we’ve been in existence over 50 years. We’ve been providing safe drinking water to different communities, different groups in our area,” Kuhlman said. “In Barton County, the biggest one is the Bissells Point area. There’s some other smaller subdivisions - Walnut Creek, Richter and Bomar, and a few commercial businesses that we also serve. We also provide water service to Barton County Landfill, Wetlands Education Center, and we’ve added the State of Kansas at Cheyenne Bottoms.” 

Kuhlman went on to say the District owns the pipeline, and they have one well that’s behind what used to be Easy Street. He said they’re also interconnected with Barton Community College and their two wells. 

“It’s been a very collaborative arrangement for both organizations. Having an extra well helps the college, and we also get a lot of benefit out of having the water tower,” Kuhlman said. “So it’s been a very collaborative effort for the two organizations. As far as the district’s well, we’ve seen a gradual rise in the nitrate levels in that well over the last 10 years or so, and it’s finally reached a point where it’s we’ve exceeded the KDHE limits. So KDHE has been asking us to find the solution to resolve that, and we’ve exhausted all of those remediation efforts over the last couple of years trying to fix that.

“We’ve tried lots of different ideas to get that fixed, but not none of them have been successful. The nitrate levels continue to stay just outside that range. So that’s led us to where we are today. We have to develop a new water source.”

Several years ago, the District had the foresight to acquire water rights approximately one mile north and east of their current well location, and will be able to produce water from there.

Board member Mark Dean followed Kuhlman and explained the plan for the new well and water lines.

“From NE 30th Road, 1.1 miles to the north, is where we’ll be developing the new well, and then running 1.1 miles of line down around the creek, tying into our existing mains along northeast 30th,” Dean said. “In addition to that, we will be extending a line into the Walnut subdivision. We already have one there, but this will be a larger line, placing a fire hydrant in there so those residences will be able to have access to the fire hydrant, which should also lower their homeowners insurance costs.”

Dean said they had to convert the water right they had purchased from an agricultural water right that had to be converted into a municipal water right. “When that happens, we lose some of those water rights, because when they switch from ag to municipal, the state reduces the amount of water right you actually have,” Dean said. “So we’ll have a new well, including new chlorine facility, installed 1.1 miles north of where our current main is. This also includes the loop in the Walnut subdivision. Once we are done, once the well has been developed, the current well that is high in nitrates will be taken out of service. As of our last our annual meeting a week ago, we had 30 meters that were not operating at all. So, we’ll be replacing all the meters in the district. The estimated cost of projects is $980,000, plus the funds that we were already expended to repair the current well.”

The District has increased its monthly rates by 58% and usage rates by 50% in order to try to raise enough funds for this project and to try and put some money aside so that they could get this project started. “We’ve used pretty much all of that already, and so we are now requesting additional dollars from the county,” Dean said. 

Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson said that “after several unsuccessful attempts to receive grant money for the project, just recently they received word that their request has been accepted and they now have the funding to start the construction. These guys got told no so many times, and they just kept on it. They went out and found their own grant writer. They got it done. And when I say we don’t need more taxes in Barton County, we need more taxpayers. You’ve got to have the infrastructure. And one of the main things you need is water. And by having good drinking water in an area that’s seen some of the new houses being built in our community already, I think this is a good investment. Between this one and what we did with Rural Water Number 1, we’re going to serve a large portion of rural Barton County. 

“Great job on going out there and finding your grant. I know that grant writing is difficult and sounds like you got told no a lot. So great job securing that.” 

The District asked for $65,000 from the County for operational expenses. Hutchinson made a motion to to encumber the $65,000 in support funding. Commissioner Donna Zimmerman seconded the motion. It carried 5-0.