The City of Wichita broke ground today on Phase II of the Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project, the largest construction work of all four ASR phases. Phase II is particularly crucial to the project’s success because the majority of the project’s infrastructure will be put in place during this time. Subsequent phases will be used to expand the treatment and water-storage capacity started in Phase II.
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, State Senator Carolyn McGinn and Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer were among those in attendance. The City’s ASR site is located northwest of Wichita between Bentley and Halstead.
The $400 million ASR project is ensuring that Wichita will have a stable and reliable water supply through the year 2050 by taking excess water flow out of the Little Arkansas River, treating it to meet water-quality standards and pumping it underground into the Equus Beds aquifer for later use.
“The partnerships the City of Wichita has formed with local, state and national elected officials and with the residents, landowners and business in Harvey and Sedgwick counties have been instrumental in making this project a reality,” Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer said. “Together we are providing a public service with benefits far beyond our lifetimes.”
ASR Phase II consists of five projects: Water Treatment Plant and Intake Structure; Pipelines; Recharge and Recovery Wells; Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems; and Overhead Power Lines. The groundbreaking took place on the future site of a Water Treatment Plant that will use cutting-edge technology to remove even the smallest of contaminants from the river water before it is put into the aquifer.
To date, the City of Wichita has pumped more than 808 million gallons of water into the Equus Beds aquifer, having the immediate benefit of pushing away approaching saltwater contamination that would have polluted Kansas’ most vulnerable and valuable aquifers had the ASR project not been in place.
Phase I of the ASR project was completed in 2006 with the capacity to pump up to 10 million gallons of water a day into the aquifer. By the time Phase II is completed in 2012 that number will jump to 40 million gallons a day.
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