Kansas’ largest city looks to copy Texas’ toilet-to-tap water recycling projects

The largest city in Kansas is looking to join two cities across the globe — Big Spring, Texas and Windhoek, Namibia — in converting what is flushed down the toilet into what comes out of the water tap — treating sewage to drinking water standards and pumping it directly into the water supply.

The Wichita City Council has approved spending nearly $10 million on developing a direct potable reuse program and constructing a small-scale water purification plant to treat wastewater to drinking water standards. It would provide proof of concept that could be used to educate the public and inform regulators and elected officials to build support for a full-scale reuse facility.

“This is going to be a proving ground,” Gary Janzen, director of Wichita Public Works and Utilities, said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a trial. It’s going to be a great place for regulators to see how this process is working.”

Wichita would follow examples in Big Spring, Texas, the first large-scale direct potable reuse facility in the United States, operated by the Colorado River Municipal Water District; Wichita Falls, Texas, which implemented a temporary direct potable reuse project from 2014 to 2015 to combat a severe drought before converting it to an indirect potable reuse facility in 2018; and El Paso, Texas, which broke ground on a direct-to-distribution Pure Water Center in 2025.

Besides perfecting the complicated treatment process, the pilot project aims to get the water-consuming public to lower their guard to the idea of drinking treated sewer water.

“When people talk about toilet to tap, I always say it’s not toilet to tap, it’s toilet to treatment to treatment to treatment to treatment to tap,” council member Becky Tuttle said. “So it’s being treated more than our water supply.”

The city of Wichita initially approved a $1.1 million contract with CDM Smith in May 2025 to develop a water reuse master plan. It expanded that contract Tuesday — adding an estimated $7 million to build and operate the small-scale plant. The council approved issuing revenue bonds up to $9.9 million for the project, which would purify about 70,000 gallons of water a day. Revenue bonds would be paid off by water and sewer user fees.

The pilot project will not put any water into the city’s distribution system, Janzen said. Instead, it will go back into the wastewater treatment plant.

The new treatment process is needed to combat future droughts and support expanding industries in the Wichita area, Janzen said Tuesday.

“It’s an expensive endeavor,” Janzen said. “The technology, the implementation of the technology, the construction of facilities is not cheap, but that’s something we’re looking down to the road for.”

El Paso has been operating a similar pilot facility since 2016 and in 2025 broke ground on a full-scale facility that will pump 10 million gallons a day of highly treated wastewater, with an expected cost of $290 million to $295 million.

The new initiative comes amid frustrations over project delays at the city’s new water treatment plant and increasing water and sewer rates paid by Wichita water customers. The city has taken on nearly a billion dollars in debt to build a new water treatment plant that is almost two years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget and to make ongoing major upgrades to its wastewater treatment facilities.

Wichita water ratepayers are covering the cost of the pilot program. The City Council approved three years of rate hikes in December that are expected to increase water bills by 23%. The council also approved permanent outdoor watering restrictions in the wake of a drought that ended in 2025. Janzen said the city plans to apply for federal grants to support future water reuse projects.

City backed new state law on wastewater use

The pilot program also included money to draft and promote a new state law that allows direct and indirect reuse of wastewater in Kansas.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed Wichita’s bill with an overwhelming majority and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed it into law in April. It directs the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to adopt rules and regulations by July 1, 2028, allowing for direct and indirect potable reuse of treated wastewater.

Indirect potable reuse, a more common treatment process, discharges treated wastewater into an “environmental buffer” such as a lake, river or aquifer before drawing it out later for another round of treatment before it is turned into drinking water. Direct potable reuse immediately routes the treated wastewater straight into the drinking water distribution system.

Janzen said Wichita wants to go the direct route.

“Some communities — some states — are doing more indirect,” Janzen said. “We want to focus on direct potable reuse.”

Janzen said Wichita discharges 25 million gallons a day of treated wastewater into the Arkansas River that could be treated for drinking water in the future. The future water purification facility could be located at the city’s wastewater treatment facility Plant No. 2 in south Wichita or at the existing water treatment plant in the Riverside neighborhood, which is expected to be taken off-line at some point after the new Wichita Water Works plant is operational.

“Either way, we would likely blend it with one of our raw water supplies,” he said. “It would go to Hess Pump Station. It would be distributed directly to the system, so direct potable reuse,” he said. “You don’t have the evaporation issues, you don’t have the potential water loss issues if you try to put it back in the aquifer. It’s more efficient, it’s more effective, but there is a cost that comes with that, too, that we are evaluating for the future.”

The small-scale pilot facility has not yet received KDHE approval, but that is expected this fall, Janzen said. If everything goes according to plan, the pilot could be fully operational by the end of 2027.

“I mentioned this is a costly endeavor long term,” Janzen said. “We have to look to the future. I don’t know yet what it looks like timingwise for full scale implementation, but this is the most practical next step — looking at this pilot project — and in the meantime, we’ll be looking at what’s practical for costs for the future, how that might impact rates. There’s also grant funding available for full construction, also, but we haven’t got to that point just yet.”

A legacy project for Wichita?

Council members celebrated the 7-0 vote as a “legacy project,” comparing it to The Big Ditch — the Mitch Mitchell Floodway that helped control flooding in Wichita.

“I have charged us with being the first city, not only in the state of Kansas but within our region, to obtain direct potable reuse,” Tuttle said. “So, I think we will be known for this in 40 years. I’m going to throw down a challenge. I think it’s that important.”

Tuttle said the plan has three obstacles: legislation and regulation, finding the money to pay for it and “now the hardest part is going to be public education.”

To lower inhibitions, Tuttle floated the idea of using the treated wastewater to make beer, so the public would be more likely to try it.

“When we were doing the RFP selection process for this consultant, CDM brought us bottles of beer that were made from water reuse in another community,” Tuttle said. “And so maybe . . . we have our pilot project and a local brewery bottles beer from it. So that’s an idea to put a pin in; I think that could be just something interesting and fun and people might be more likely to give it a taste if it’s, you know, that way.”

“Education is going to be key,” council member Dalton Glasscock said. “I’m excited. I think this could be one of the longest legacy items that anyone from this bench could help be a part of.”

“Setting the stage now for success in the future,” council member Mike Hoheisel said. “Regardless of if we get credit or anybody knows that we were pushing on it. But this is definitely a legacy project.”