Trucking in water to cost city more than $17,000 years ago
Hillsboro is trucking in water around the clock, but few things in life are free.
So the question on many peoples' minds is this: How much will the city pay for all the water it's bringing in?
The total cost is divided into two areas: the price of the actual water and the price of the trucks and their drivers.
As of Monday morning, the city has pumped in nearly three million gallons of water from Rural Water District No. 4 and the City of McPherson.
And though the final cost of the water isn't set in stone, preliminary estimates suggest that the city will pay at least $3,800 for the wet stuff and $13,000 to use Gorges Dairy's trucks and drivers.
By the time word of the water situation hit Hillsboro streets June 6, city officials had already contacted Rick Anderson, general manager of McPherson's board of public utilities.
Hillsboro asked McPherson if it could spare water for its customers — and McPherson agreed, Anderson said.
Drivers in Gorges Dairy trucks began the trek to McPherson that evening, and working around the clock they brought in 22 loads in the first 30-hour period. One load inside the sterile milk containers equals 6,500 gallons, Anderson said.
Hillsboro also began bringing in water from Rural Water District No. 4 the same evening, making McPherson the secondary source, he said. McPherson now covers what District 4 can't.
Because of that, the number of loads making the trek on U.S. Highway 56 has varied greatly. During this past weekend, 26 loads were delivered — up from the first weekend of the crisis.
"It's rather sporadic," Anderson said.
What about cost? McPherson's normal price for water, when selling it wholesale to local water districts, is $1.40 per 1,000 gallons. But McPherson and Hillsboro have not yet negotiated the final price, Anderson stressed.
As of Monday morning, more than 600,000 gallons of water had been brought to Hillsboro, Anderson said. That amounts to $840.
But the main water supplier has been Rural Water District No. 4, which has an office in Hillsboro.
District 4 has given more than two million gallons to the City of Hillsboro, according to operator Galen Penner.
The district has two water towers in Marion County. Both are west of town, with one just south of U.S. Highway 56 and the other two miles south and one mile west of the K-15/Highway 56 intersection.
Dairy trucks have been pumping water from a fire hydrant adjacent to the tower on 56, Penner said. The district was also able to hook up a hose between the hydrant and a water line near Country Haven Inn, but that line can only deliver 114 gallons per minute, making the bulk of the water come through trucks.
Still, the distance is considerably shorter than driving to McPherson, Penner said.
District 4 is limiting the water outtake to 270,000 gallons a day, usually with 18 to 20 trucks a day.
They tried to exceed 270,000 over the past weekend, but the pumps just couldn't keep up, he said. District 4 pumps water into its towers from an aquifer southwest of Moundridge.
The tower can hold 300,000 gallons at a time, Penner said. District 4 supplies water for 700 users located in western Marion County, southeast McPherson County, and the housing area located east of the Marion Reservoir.
Right now, District 4 typically charges $1.50 per 1,000 gallons for its water. But the district is doing this because Hillsboro needs help, not to make a profit.
"We're not expecting to make a lot of money," Penner said.
With at least two million gallons out, that's a tab of $3,000 for Hillsboro.
That makes the total cost of water at least $3,840.
The water has to get to Hillsboro somehow. The first method of choice was to use milk trucks from Gorges Dairy. The drivers of the trucks are also dairy employees.
The number of trucks making round-the-clock runs to the District 4 water tower and McPherson has ranged from three at a time to one at a time, said Hillsboro City Administrator Steve Garrett.
As of Tuesday morning, Garrett estimated that the city has spend at least $13,000 for the use of the trucks and drivers.
In addition to those dairy trucks, the Kansas Department of Transportation has supplied one truck and one driver. This truck makes water runs at no cost to the city — the only charge will be for the actual water, Garrett said.
The KDOT truck has been running every day, with the dairy trucks supplementing it as needed.
