With the hot dry weather, water usage in the city of Hutchinson is running at peak level.

Don Koci who manages the city’s Reverse Osmosis Plant at 23rd and Severance says the plant is pumping around 9-million gallons of water per day. The year long average for the plant is around 6-million gallons. Koci says unlike cities in western Kansas, Hutchinson is doing well as far as a usable water supply, although the water table has dropped over the past year.

One other unexpected benefit from the plant has been the more limited pumping of the aquifer from the the north parts of the county.

Use of contaminated water from the Careyville site has eased pressure on the ground water table north of the city which is heavily tapped by irrigation. Koci says that has kept the ground water pollution on the south and east side of the city in check.

He says extensive pumping by the city’s water wells and irrigation would normally speed up the migration of the pollution to that area. That water, about 3-million gallons a day, is being intercepted by the city and treated at the plant.

He doesn’t anticipate any problems in making repairs to the RO plant next month. The city was forced to make repairs to the plants valve controls after fluctuations in pressure damaged the equipment. Work is expected to begin in August and should only last a day or two. Crews will work at night to ease potential problems with service disruptions.