By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
In early December, a boil water advisory was issued for the City of Great Bend. A few days later, an advisory was enforced in Russell. Less than two weeks later, the City of Hoisington had its own boil water advisory. The flurry of advisories were caused by different circumstances such as waterline breaks in Hoisington and Russell.
RELATED STORY: City of Great Bend working to get KDHE boil water advisory rescinded
In Great Bend, a power outage prevented some of the water wells from kicking on. Public Works Director Jason Cauley said the situation was a learning experience with preventative steps taken for the future.
"Before, the VFDs (Variable Frequency Drive) had one restart try," said Cauley. "Now, certain VFDs have five restart tries, some will have three. We have wells that are on different circuits now. Whenever pressure gets to a certain metric, those will kick on."
When the electricity went out December 2, the power did not go out long enough to kick on the backup generators but was off enough to mess with the electrical systems for the city’s public water system.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment rescinded the boil water advisory for Great Bend on Dec. 5.