El Dorado offers up water to Wichita

(EL DORADO, Kan.) — Do you know where your water comes from? The city of Wichita currently gets its water from two places - Cheney Reservoir and the Equus Beds Aquifer.
     
But those aquifers are losing fresh water, which could be a problem down the road.  So a local community has a solution.

You use it, probably more than you know.  "Shower, dishes, and in the summertime, water the yard," explained Tony Ohlman.  He was watering his lawn with it.

As long as people have it, most don't care where their water was before it got into their pipes.  "I've never really thought about where my water comes from," said Ohlman.

But one place thinks about water.  The city of El Dorado, which has a lake by the same name.

"Not only do we have plenty of water," ssaid Kurt Bookout of El Dordado Public Utilites.  "It's great quality of water, coming from the Flint Hills Drainage Basin."

There are more than 50 billion gallons of water in the lake.  The city of El Dorado uses about 9 million a day. It sells more to other communities.  It would like to sell to Wichita.

Wichita residents use 59 million gallons of water daily.  The water currently comes from aquifers, that are running low, and Cheney Lake.

By using the El Dorado Lake water, the city of El Dorado says Wichita can save, even replenish, aquifer water.  El Dorado could make some money, and no one in Wichita would be without water.

The city of Wichita says it is considering using El Dorado water to supplement, or substitute, some of its water usage.

But the infrastructure must be built first -- so if Wichita agrees to buy water, it's at least two years before Wichita residents get it.
     
"You don't think about it too much," said Ohlman, "until you don't have it."

 And being without water is something everyone tries to avoid.

"As long as I have water," summed up Ohlman, "I don't think about where it comes from."