Water Plant Power Failure and Boil Water Advisory
At a glance
Based on auto-generated captions; details may be misheard.
- What: A September 16, 2026 power loss at the water plant that dropped system pressure and led to a boil water advisory.
- Where it stands: Corrective actions under way: generator set point lowered, manual pre-storm switching paused, independent after-action review, root-cause assessment expected in about 30 days.
Related news
On September 16, 2026 at about 5 a.m. the main water treatment plant, more than 80 years old, lost power for about 45 minutes while on backup generators after the previous night's storms. The pressure loss triggered a boil water advisory covering about 500,000 people in Wichita, Derby, Rose Hill, Valley Center, Bel Aire, Benton, Kechi, Park City and three rural water districts, and some schools closed. Wichita's advisory was lifted the evening of September 17 and the surrounding communities' by September 20 after testing found no bacteriological contamination.
- KCTV5, Wichita boil advisory impacting about 500K water customers remains in effect (2026-09-16)
- KCTV5, Wichita boil advisory impacting about 500K water customers, cancels school for some students (2026-09-16)
- KCTV5, Boil water advisory update: City of Wichita provides insight into when order could end (2026-09-16)
Summary built from the news reports and the city's records.
Log
- 2026-09-22 - City Council Workshop - Public Works briefed the workshop; council asked about alerts for apartment residents and the timing of state health department approval.