To become a member of the District persons need to call (620) 837-5634, 1-888-737-3853 or come into our office during business hours to apply for Rural Water All applications are sent to the District’s Engineer for a feasibility study to determine if the addition of a new user in the area would affect the existing users. The cost of a Benefit Unit is $5,000.00 plus all construction costs. This price is good through 12/31/2024.

Our water is pumped from our own water wells in the Equus Beds in Western Harvey County, Kansas. The monthly cost of water includes a $19.00 minimum plus the cost of all water used. ($6.40 per 1,000 gallons for the first 30,0000 gallons, after the first 30,000 gallons the cost drops to $6.10 per 1,000 gallons.) We hope to reduce this rate in the future once we establish the actual cost to pump our own water.

We have drilled our own water wells Southwest of Hesston. The new water wells are located in the Equus Beds and will be used as our primary source of water in the future with Newton still being our backup supply. We have added approximately 121 new customers in the area around Hesston and Northwest of Newton. The final stages of construction are wrapping up at this time. We started using water from our own wells on November 13 after getting approval from Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

We are currently taking applications for this new area as well as in our existing District. If you are interested in getting Rural Water please contact our office.

Directions to our Office:

Our office is located in Walton, Kansas at 210 Esau. Go east of Newton on Highway 50 to the City of Walton, at Grant Street (Co-op elevator) turn east and go approximately 2-1/2 blocks. Esau is the last street before leaving town. Turn south on Esau, we are the only building on the east side of the street.

Maintenance Problems:

We have maintenance personnel on call for Maintenance Emergencies after our normal business hours. Please be sure you have an emergency prior to calling after normal business hours. There is a $40.00 service fee if we are called out and the problem is on your side of the meter or the meter has frozen and you did not have the foam insert we provide all of our customers in the meter well over the meter . If you find water running out of the meter well or along the line to the meter our personnel need to be notified immediately. If you find water running on your side of the meter, the meter can be turned off. Please remember that all water that goes through the meter is your responsibility and you will be billed for the water.

If you observe a water line break on the District’s Main Water Lines and you call our office to report the leak, you will be paid a $20.00 reward for reporting the leak once Maintenance has verified the leak in on one of our main service line.

OUR DISTRICT HAS GONE TO NEW RADIO READ METERS.

During the last year we have changed out all of our customers water meters to a new radio read system in which we drive by each month and read the customers meter for them. The readings are taken back to the office and entered into the billing program and a new billing is sent out. We read all of our customers meters on the first couple days of each month so the customer is billed for a full month each month. We ask that our customer do not drive over these meters or mow over them as they could damage them. There is a $40.00 charge plus all costs for parts damages and labor that will be billed to the customer if they are damaged. These meters cost over $350.00 each so please be careful. You can open the lid to the meter well if you are careful, or you can call the office and we will send maintenance out to assist you.

AUTO PAY:

We have started a program where you can set up your account to be paid with auto withdrawal from you bank account. Call the office to get the details and the forms to start this having your account paid each month with out having to worry about a late charge. Auo pay customers have the option of receiving their water bills by email. 

General Information About the District

Service Area:

• Butler County – the Northwest Corner of Butler County.
• Harvey County – the East half of Harvey County, East of I-35 and Northwest of Newton and the Hesston area.
• McPherson County - 2 units are on the Harvey/McPherson county Line
• Marion County – the Southwest Corner of Marion County
• Sedgwick County – the Northeast corner of Sedgwick County

Number of Customers:

• Butler County — 109 customers plus the City of Elbing
• Harvey County — 769 customers plus the City of Walton (2 meters), KDOT I-35 Rest Stop.
• Marion County – 239 customers
• McPherson County - 2 customers
• Sedgwick County – 72 customers

Total Customers/Meters (as of 12/31/2023) 1195:

• Harvey Co. RWD # 1’s
  • 300,000 gal Water Tower - located SW/4 of 6-23S-2E.
  • 100,000 gal Water Tower - located NE/4 of 36-21S-1E.
  • 75,000 gal Water Tower – located NE/4 of 28-22S-3E.
• City of Elbing’s - 9 x 100 Standpipe.
• City of Walton’s - 30,000 gal Water Tower
• KDOT - 6 x 75 Standpipe

Booster Pumps owned by Harvey Co. RWD #1:

1. Located NE/4 of 13-22S-1E.
   
    
2. Located SE/4 of 23-22S-2E.

Master Meters:

1. Located ½ mile East of Newton – at half mile line of SE/4 in 15-23S-1E.(Now inactive)
2. Located at the Corner of Spencer and NE 12th – SW/4 of 10-23S-1E.
3. Located 1/2 mile West of N Essex Heights Rd on 60th—W/2 of NE/4 of 25-22S-2W.

Water purchased by Harvey Co Rural Water District #1 is purchased from the City of Newton. The majority of the water used in the District comes a from the District’s own water wells in the Equus Beds in Western Harvey County.

This water is all ground water and none is gotten from lakes etc.

Pressure Regulation Valve Stations:

• SE/4 of 14-23S-2E.
• SE/4 of 32-24S-2E.
• SE/4 of 14-24S-1E.
• SW/4 of 34-24S-2E.
• SW/4 of 17-24S-2E.

Distribution Lines:

The District has approximately 600 miles of water lines though out the District. The size of the lines varies from 1-1/2” to 12”. The main service lines from the water well to our main water tower is a 12” lines. Other main service lines are mainly 5” and 6” service lines. Branch lines vary from 1-1/2” to 4”. We do not put in any 1-1/2 lines as service lines any more; the smallest service line the District now puts in is 2”.

Flush Valves and Fire Hydrants:

The District has installed both of these through out the District. Fire hoses cannot be directly hooked to the hydrants but maybe used to fill tankers. All hydrants are installed on 3” or larger lines.

The following power companies furnish electricity to our District:

1. Butler Rural Electric - services the Main Pump Station located just south of the Newton Airport, SW/4 of 13-23S-1E, the 300,000 Water Tower and the 75,000 Water tower
2. Flint Hills Rural Electric- services the 100,000 Water Tower and the 2 Booster Pump Stations.
3. Evergy (Westar) services the office and the meter pit located at the corner of 60th Street and Esau at the East edge of Walton, the three water wells and the new pump house/chlorination building.

Other Items of Interest:

Though all our water towers are located in Harvey and Marion Counties they do serve our customers in Butler and Sedgwick County.

KDHE estimates the population served by our water district to be over 3000. This includes the Cities of Elbing and Walton population as they get their water from us.

Water Quality and Hardness:

Some of our customers have called to say that they have had problems with the water and calcium deposits.  In talking to our engineer, Louis Funk, he advised that some of this may be the result of the water's tendency to deposit versus erode calcium in the pipelines.  The formula that reflects these characteristics is called the Langelier's Index and is a function of pH, temperature, alkalinity, hardness, and total dissolved solids.  We are looking into a way to adjust these characteristics in the water.  What is happening is that depending upon the temperature the calcium in the water is at times breaking lose from the pipes and will send small particles of white calcium into the water.  This is not harmful to humans or animals but it may cause concerns to persons who see it.  It is also resulting in the build up in hot water heaters, dish washers and even in coffee pots.  Any appliance that heats water will cause the calcium to show up more that when it is not heated.

Options for our customers:
 
  (1)  Install a water softener.(The District at this time is not planning to install a District wide system due to the cost, which would raise our customers rates by about a $1.00 per thousand gallons of water and increase the month minimum by about $15-20 per month.  In other words 5,000 gallons of water would go from a cost of $47.16 to $72.16.)
  (2)  Drain and flush your hot water heater at least once a year.  This will help to drain out the calcium settlement that builds up in the bottom of you hot water heater.  The is recommended by the manufacture.
  (3) For Dishwashers use a product call Lemi-Shine along with you dish soap.  This products helps to keep the deposits off the glassware.
  (4) The use of filtered water may help to keep the film and settlements out of coffee makers.

Maintenance is working with our engineer to try and adjust the Langelier's Index which we hope will take care of some of these problems.  We do come out and flush customers lines if they request it.  Please be aware that some of the problem may be in the individual households plumbing as calcium and other deposit do build up in household plumbing as well, especially if the customer's plumbing has been in the house for some time.



 

Links:

www.krwa.net
 

Images:

Mike Entz, head of our Maintenance Department, operates the backhoe. We have our own backhoe that is used to change out meters wells, repair water leaks, and repair small water leaks if they are within 10 feet of the meter well for customers. If the leak is on the customers side of the meter within a 10 foot area of the meter well we will fix the leak and then sent a bill to the customer for the repairs.