By midmorning Wednesday, the citizens of Great Bend were feeling the effects of a second day of state-mandated boil water advisory and waiting for a return to normal. The Great Bend school district, which had canceled school on Tuesday, was back in session Wednesday morning with restrictions; businesses were adapting to the advisory’s protocols on water use and hand-sanitation stations, instead of hand-washing, was the order of the day.
But residents weren’t the only ones playing the waiting game. Great Bend Public Works Director Jason Cauley was also watching the clock, anticipating good news from the water testing facility in Salina that he could then forward to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and bring the current saga to a close.
Cauley’s department was front and center on Monday’s history-making event, in that the 40 minutes the community was without water was the first — and therefore longest — period in Great Bend’s history. “To my knowledge, this is the first time that we’ve had to boil water,” Cauley noted on Tuesday morning. “This is also the longest time that Great Bend has gone without water.
“It’s history, yeah, but it’s not good history,” he said.
Cauley said that test results from the city’s 15 test zones on Tuesday morning were received by the certified water testing facility in Salina at approximately 1:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. He expected that he would get results, after the verification process is complete, by about 5-5:30 p.m. Those results, if favorable, would then be forwarded to the KDHE who would then rescind the advisory by Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning at the latest.
Cauley also noted that based on information regarding the event, he believed the results would be good. “The advisory was issued by the KDHE as a precautionary measure as directed by the state,” he added.
A ‘perfect storm’
Monday’s power outage and water loss is being blamed on the failure of a transformer at Eighth and Odell Streets. While Wheatland Electric quickly acted to restore power, the initial power up produced a low-voltage surge that caused a “perfect storm” of events affecting Great Bend’s primary water distribution system, and also the city’s backup system. “The power was enough to operate some electronics, but not enough to reengage the well pumps. This caused a temporary drop in water pressure that initiated the KDHE advisory protocol. According to the KDHE, failure to maintain adequate pressure may result in a loss of chlorine residuals and bacterial contamination. Cauley notified KDHE when it was discovered that water pressure had dropped below 20 pounds.
City crews were able to manually engage the pumps to bring the pressure back to normal.
“This was just a perfect storm,” Cauley said. “It was just a situation we’ve never really experienced before and, hopefully, we’ll never experience again.
“I know it took a while to get the water back on, but I feel like we responded relatively quickly and we did a really good job,” he noted. “I have to really give kudos to my crew for getting out there, spreading out, and making sure those wells got kicked back on.”
Cauley’s department immediately began taking mitigating action following the event, that included chlorine residuals checks and disinfection. Review conversations were initiated with the electrical contractor and others from several directions. The city’s notification system is also being scrutinized, Cauley noted. Collection of water samples from the city’s 15 test zones was begun at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Cauley noted that it was doubtful that the presence of a water tower would have prevented the situation.
“It’s my speculation that the presence of a water tower might have alleviated the problem temporarily, or masked the situation,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to tell that these wells weren’t kicking on, drained the tower, and maybe led to other issues.”
