Questions raised as cost increases for Wichita’s new water treatment facility

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Some Wichitans are raising questions about why the city’s half-billion-dollar Water Works project is rising despite the water treatment facility construction being called “under budget” when first voted on. Now, the City of Wichita is planning to spend millions more to get the facility operational and to figure out what to do with the old treatment plant.

On Monday, 12 News sat down with Wichita Mayor Lily Wu to discuss the water treatment facility and the associated costs. She and the city said that when the new facility, the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, was first approved in 2019, operational plans weren’t part of the project plan, a plan that could now cost the city more than $4 million.

At a Wichita City Council meeting in December 2018, then-Mayor Jeff Longwell entered a motion that removed the operations of the new Northwest Water Treatment Plant from contract proposals to “continue down the path of a design-build contest.”

That motion passed, 4-3. In 2019, the $494 million project was approved, with no cost planned for operations, an important part of the project that is now in the hands of new council members and a new mayor.

“It is very frustrating that to see that now in 2024, we still have line items that we have to approve that should have been part of the project back in 2024,” Wu said.

The mayor said she doesn’t agree with how the initial approval was done.

“For me, I think you would have thought of the project as a whole, thinking about it from design, construction to operation for the new plant, but also what you would do with the old plant,” Wu said.

For the old plant still in operation, the city council already approved an $85,000 contract with a consultant to determine the next steps. On Tuesday, the council will consider a more-than $4 million contract for the startup, commissioning and operations of the new Wichita Water Works Plant, costs that are just now being discussed.

“Now we have this before us as a council and we need to get it operational,” Wu said.

When asked about spending $85,000 on a consultant for the old water plant, the city said the work on the old plant is highly specialized and technical, and while consultants are working on the old plant, city staff will be able to concentrate on bringing the new plant online.