HUMBOLDT Humboldt residents were allowed to resume normal water consumption shortly after noon today, after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed the water flowing from the Neosho River was safe to consume.
At issue were contaminants that reached the Neosho following a New Year’s Day fire at Mid-West Fertilizer in Iola.
A battery of tests up and downstream from Humboldt showed no elevated levels of the contaminants, paving the way for the all-clear, Humboldt City Administrator Cole Herder said.
The city is asking Humboldt residents to conserve water until 3 p.m. today, to allow its water towers to refill and pumps to begin sending water from its treatment plant into the city.
Humboldt suspended operations at its water treatment plant mid-day Thursday, and instead fed water to the community from its water towers, after KDHE discovered possible contamination in the Neosho.
A conservation order was handed down, asking residents and businesses to refrain from any unnecessary usage, to prevent the tanks from running dry. Had the all-clear not been given, Herder said he expected the tanks to be emptied by late tonight.
“We’re very pleased with how the people conserved enough to get us through this,” Herder said.
The city also avoided a second danger low water pressure in the city’s lines which would have happened had the water tower levels dipped too low.
Low pressure in water lines puts the water at risk of other types of bacteria forming, and would have likely meant a boil order for the next few days, even after the city resumed treating the water.
“The good part of getting (the all-clear) now was to avoid that whole other set of problems,” Herder said.
Testing will continue along the river for the next few days because there are still locations where possible contamination is evident, Herder said.
