The Wichita ASR water project produced little water in July, continuing to fail to produce water at the projected rate or design capacity.
An important part of Wichita’s water supply infrastructure is the Aquifer Storage and Recovery program, or ASR. This is a program whereby water is taken from the Little Arkansas River, treated, and injected in the Equus Beds aquifer. That water is then available in the future as is other Equus Beds water.
With a cost so far of $247 million, the city believes that ASR is a proven technology that will provide water and drought protection for many years. Last year the city recommended that voters approve $250 million for its expansion, to be paid for by a sales tax. Voters rejected the tax.
According to city documents, the original capacity of the ASR phase II project to process water and pump it into the ground (the “recharge” process) was given as “Expected volume: 30 MGD for 120 days.” That translates to 3,600,000,000 (3.6 billion or 3,600 million) gallons per year. ASR phase II was completed in 2011.
At a city council workshop in April 2014, Director of Public Works and Utilities Alan King briefed the council on the history of ASR, mentioning the original belief that ASR would recharge 11,000 acre feet of water per year. But he gave a new estimate for production, telling the council that “What we’re finding is, we’re thinking we’re going to actually get 5,800 acre feet. Somewhere close to half of the original estimates.” The new estimate translates to 1,889,935,800 (1.9 billion) gallons per year.
2013 was a drought year, so to present ASR in the best possible light, I’ve prepared a chart starting in July 2013. That was when it started raining heavily, and data from USGS shows that the flow in the Little Arkansas River was much greater. Still, the ASR project is not keeping up with projections, even after goals were lowered.
In July 2015, the ASR project recharged 64 million gallons of water. Its design capacity is 30 million gallons per day, so the work done in July represents slightly more than two days of design capacity. The ASR project is able to draw from the Little Arkansas River when the flow is above 30 cfs. As can be seen in the chart of the flow of the river, the flow was above this level for the entire month.


Better than not doing anything. That was a pretty ambitious estimate, though, for an area that has historically been way behind the curve on water, though.
The city is in a fiscal pickle. First, the voters rejected the city sales tax hike scheme. ASR continues not to produce much if any water despite a very wet summer. Soaring water rates in conjunction with this water means little summer sprinkling needed for lawns and this means less city water monopoly revenue. The council won’t raise the mill levy explicitly. However, some how my home’s property tax keeps growing despite a flat assessment for the last couple of years. Wichita is an eight cylinder engine operating on only 5 cylinders.