After a few months of discussion, the Moundridge City Council passed a new law dealing with lawn irrigation and the municipal water supply.
Ordinance No. 1049 was approved during the April 13 City Council meeting, and it went into effect April 14.
It requires any sprinkler system or fire suppression system connected to the city’s public water supply to have a backflow prevention device, and those devices, as well as all cross connections, must be inspected every two years by a qualified inspector.
This does not impact homeowners who have their own water wells connected to their lawn irrigation systems.
City Administrator Jeremy Johnson said this new law brings Moundridge into compliance with Kansas Department of Health and Environment mandates.
“We have to have that,” he said.
Homeowners must pay for the biannual inspections, and the resulting reports must be filed with the city.
Johnson said he investigated what it would cost residents to have the inspections done by a few companies operating in the area, and he found prices ranging from $80 to $100.
It was this expense that gave the council members pause.
“They’re concerned about the burden that would be put upon the customers of our community homeowners,” Johnson said. “I understand it.”
Still, Johnson said the requirement is necessary to protect the water supply.
“I came from the field. I know the importance of keeping our water safe,” he said. “If we have a water main break or a pressure drop in our system that would allow the customer’s side to backflow into the city’s water supply, you have the contaminants of fertilizers and pesticides that could possibly draft back into our system. That’s a huge issue.”
Without the backflow prevention devices installed and regularly inspected, it would be nearly impossible to determine the source of the contamination.
“You don’t know what house it came from,” Johnson said. “You don’t know where to isolate it. We’ve got close to a thousand water meters in our community.”
According to the ordinance, failure to have the biannual inspections could result in fines or a homeowner’s water being shut off.
However, Johnson didn’t think it would come to that.
“We’re a small community. Hopefully, we’re in good standing with all our customers. The cost of stuff is going up every day. It’s not getting cheaper. I’m a homeowner too. You hate to see increases that the city’s throwing out to you,” he said. “But also, we want to make sure we have clean water. We don’t want anyone getting sick.”
Combined with the annual and monthly water samples the city sends to KDHE, Johnson said he believed the new law would ensure quality water comes out of people’s taps.
“We strive to have the best-tasting, safe water for our consumers,” he said. “It’s not intended to put a burden on the homeowners.”
The city does not have an approved list of certified testers. However, Johnson said a few companies he had checked with indicated they were able to inspect the systems. These included, but were not limited to, Wetland Irrigation and Turf LLC and Dreier’s Lawn Irrigation LLC.
Johnson also said Goering Hardware is getting a couple of its employees certified to conduct the inspections.
Large customers, such as Pine Village, are having some of their employees certified as well due to the large number of connections they have.
Likewise, the City of Moundridge is having two of its water employees get certified to test city-owned devices and connections.
“There we could save taxpayers money by doing it in-house,” Johnson said. “But we’re holding our employees to the same standard as a company that’s going to come out and do it.”
However, they will not be able to inspect homes.
“We’re implementing the ordinance,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of a conflict of interest.”
City employees will be able to remind homeowners about the need to have their devices and connections inspected, though.
Johnson said that the staff members who walk around town to read meters are trained to identify backflow devices, and building permits also stipulate the requirement.
“We can also tell with water usage,” he said. “If someone’s using a hundred units a month and they have a nice, beautiful lawn, we know. Or they’re just wasting a lot of water.”
In addition to the backflow law, the City Council also approved Ordinance No. 1048, which concerned the fluoridation of the municipal water supply.
This was adopted in February, and it eliminated the requirement that additional fluoride be added to the city’s water.
According to Johnson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lowered the fluoride standard to 0.7 parts per million.
Moundridge gets its water from the Equus Beds Aquifer, and since the city’s water supply was nearly at the EPA standard naturally, injecting additional fluoride was deemed no longer necessary.
Johnson said the city tests the water quality frequently, and if the fluoride level is found to be below that standard, they will still inject fluoride. However, they will only add enough to reach the EPA’s standard.
No matter the decisions, Johnson expressed that he and the City Council are trying to be good stewards of Moundridge’s water.
“You don’t want to see misuse of what we have. We want it for our kids and our grandkids. We don’t want to use it all up,” Johnson said. “That’s good stuff. We want to preserve that for those future generations.”
If residents have questions about their water, they are encouraged to reach out to the City Office. They can also review the annual Consumer Confidence Report on the city’s website.
