Although various members of the council supported the new company, the issue was postponed to the 28th.

Upon taking up the issue once more, a squabble arose over the citizens' request for the extension of mains. The question was whether the company could compel the city to rent a new hydrant for each 600 feet of main. A compromise was reached. Whenever the City Council ordered extensions in that section, the residents would pay $50 a year, and the city could rent at least one hydrant for every 600 feet of pipe extensions ordered. Following the debate, the city attorney agreed to inspect the ordinance, and on June 29, it passed the council, becoming law on July 10, 1888. It was a 20-year franchise to serve the portion of Wichita east of Chisholm Creek and north of 13th Street.

The company commenced to build its works, reporting ready to be tested on October 22, 1888, and it was found satisfactory on November 12. The company maintained service in the defined area and, consequently, did not compete with the Wichita Water Company. After 15 years of operations, it sold its rights to the Wichita Water Company on November 9, 1903. Its pumping station, located at 14th and Grove streets, was used to service the Fairmont district until 1912 when it was hooked to the rest of the system.

A similar formation nearly occurred later in 1888. Residents in the College Hill area formed a waterworks company and stormed the council halls on August 15 requesting a franchise for the area on Douglas Avenue between Hydraulic Avenue and the College Hill area. In the meeting, however, the council ordered main extensions into the area with over 40 additional hydrants. The Wichita Water Company agreed to extend mains to College Hill and the franchise request was withdrawn. Some customers in the area were served by the Fairmont Company until its merger with the larger business.

The Wichita Water Company continued to expand to meet the needs of the growing city. By the middle of 1890, 95 drive wells were in use with four steam boilers and six pumping engines, The works supplied two million gallons of water per day and had a capacity of 12 million gallons per day. During its first year of operation, it laid over 26,000 feet of cast iron pipe, added 25 hydrants for a total of 217 and replaced over 6,000 feet of wooden pipe with iron.

Mayor G.W. Clement praised the company in his annual report to the council on April 14, 1890, "While our water works system is the property of a private corporation, it is especially gratifying to know that the company has taken great pains and been to great expense to furnish an abundant supply of good pump water. We can truly say that no city in the country has any better, clearer, purer, sweeter water than our own city. This contributes very much to the health of our people." (Eagle, 4/15/1890). Again the rhetoric did not always coincide with the actions.

Over the next 10 years the city continued to grow, with many signs of health and progress. New pumps were installed in the water system and by 1900 most of the wooden mains had been replaced by iron as the new company had promised. Some 2800 customers were being serviced through 20 miles of mains with an average pumpage of 3,000,000 gallons per day. Shortly after the turn of the century major controversy developed between the city and the company that would continue over the next 50 years.

However, the view of the city's water supplier was not totally negative. Historian O. H. Bentley gave, in a 1910 history of Sedgwick County, a full and positive view of what Wichita had available, in a chapter on the Wichita Water Company.

Bentley reported that a new pump house was constructed in 1910 located a short distance southwest of the intersection of Central and Seneca avenues where the island had been before being connected to the mainland. A new l00-foot brick stack was added, with two 250-horsepower boilers and two new five million gallon pumping engines, bringing the pumping capacity of the plant up to 20 million gallons per day.

In addition, during 1910, more than 30 miles of cast iron pipe were laid, the greater part of which was reinforced lines of large diameter. A new 12-inch reinforcing line was placed north of the station in the Riverside district, as well as in a line with Waco Avenue to the stockyards and packing houses. One of the most important additions was a 16-inch main from the station direct to the heart of the business district. This resulted in four main discharge mains, ten, 12, and 16 inches in diameter, leading from the pump station to various parts of the system. All of this was in addition to a number of miles of smaller lines reaching outlying residences.