HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It’s been more than a year since the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) issued a boil water advisory for the Western Acres mobile home park near Yaggy. Efforts to come to some type of remediation have failed. Now the KDHE has rescinded the boil water advisory and issued a do not drink order.
The order took effect Friday and will remain in effect until the conditions that placed the system at risk of contamination are resolved. KDHE officials issued the order because of unknown water quality due to the system’s failure to collect required bacteriological and chemical water samples.
The park has been under a boil water advisory since Aug. 8, 2018, and no action has been taken by the park’s owner Justin Whitt.
KDHE filed legal action in May of 2019 requesting action be taken by Whitt to deal with the drinking water at the park. In August, the state filed a $55,000 civil penalty against Whitt, but nothing was ever done to fix the water problem.
Under the no drinking order, water cannot be consumed for any reason. The KDHE says boiling, freezing or filtering water does not eliminate the high nitrate levels that are in the water.
Regardless of whether the public water supplier or KDHE announces a do not drink order, only KDHE can issue the rescind order following testing at a certified laboratory.