Background of Peabody's Water Supply

In 1994 the City of Peabody's well was ordered closed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for safety reasons. A leaking abandoned underground fuel tank endangered the well with possible contamination.

KDHE gave the City permission to drill eight new test wells. After drilling five wells with no success, KDHE stopped the City from drilling and requested they look for an alternate source of water.

Peabody then looked at surrounding communities to provide a water source. The City pursued connecting to the water tower south of Peabody with Harvey County Rural Water District #1. However, the line capacity could not support Peabody's water demand.

A second water source option was the El Dorado Lake. A line from Peabody to the City of Potwin could be designed which would then hook onto another line to El Dorado. This proposal was approved by Rural Development if technicalities could be worked out between Peabody and Potwin, but negotiations were not successful. If Peabody went this route, water bills would increase $10 per month per water meter. This was not feasible for citizens.

The Peabody City Council had two final options. One option would allow the City to take a route through the City of Walton and hook onto Harvey County Rural Water District #1. The other option was to get water from the City of Hillsboro. Construction costs for both options were about the same. However, the cost of \water from the Harvey County option was approximately double the cost of water from Hillsboro. The most economic option was to construct a water supply line to the city of Hillsboro with the water source as Marion Reservoir. Peabody negotiated a contract with both the State of Kansas for allocation and the City of Hillsboro for treatment.

Public meetings were held to keep the public apprised of project progress. The proposed project would consist of a 17-mile transmission line with a booster pump station located next to the clear well at Hillsboro with an estimated cost of $1,452,000. Peabody was instructed to used the existing clear well at Hillsboro. This clear well was not being used by Hillsboro, since they had constructed a new one.

During this period of time, the City submitted an application to the Kansas Department of Commerce & Housing for assistance in the construction of the project and received funding through a Community Development Block Grant in the fall of 1996 for $400,000. In addition, KDHE provided grant funds for $475,000 and Rural Development for $636,4000. Rural Development approved the loan for $368,000. Peabody received total funding for the project through grants and loans for $1,452,000, then proceeded with the design of the plans and specifications for the Hillsboro route.

In June 2000, the City advertised the project for bids. Sealed bids were received on July 18, 2000, and the contracts were awarded to Eatherly Constructors, Inc. of Garden City for the construction of the transmission line, the booster pump station, and the Hillsboro ground storage tank lining. BRB contractors, Inc. of Topeka was awarded the telemetry bid.

Construction on the water transmission line began in October 2000. Water from the pipeline became available to Peabody citizens in May 2001.

Extracted from the Kansas Government Journal, September 2001 Peabody's Search for Water"