WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — State health officials have rescinded the boil water advisories for Elk County Rural Water District 1 and Wilson County Rural Water District 13.
The Wilson County advisory started last week after a waterline break caused a loss of pressure in the distribution system. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the problem has been fixed, and the water has been tested at a laboratory and is safe.
The people who get their water from Elk County Rural Water District 1 have been boiling their water since the end of September. That’s when the KDHE issued a boil water advisory that spanned three counties where more than a dozen water systems had purchased water from the Public Wholesale Water Supply District 20. The KDHE said the water supplier could not maintain the minimum required chlorine residual, which can put the systems at risk for bacterial contamination.
Now that the KDHE says the Elk County Rural Water District 1 water has been tested and is safe, the only water system still under that original boil water advisory is Chautauqua County Rural Water District 2.
The KDHE is the only organization that can rescind a Kansas boil water advisory.