Water line break impacts Hume, Rich Hill water supply

A break in a water line in Kansas has caused problems for the Hume schools. School was closed Thursday and again today because not enough water is available.

Thursday Superintendent David Quick said the school was forced to shut down because the tower that serves the town did not have enough water in it to guarantee there would be enough to run all day Friday.

"They had a water break in the line from Kansas, evidently it's pretty major," Quick said. "We're not getting enough from Rich Hill to fill the tower full enough to be sure we would have water all day. It's late enough now that I know we won't be open tomorrow."

Rich Hill supplies some of the water to Bates County Water District 4, which supplies Hume, and other water comes from a water district in Kansas.

Rose Entrikin, Rich Hill city clerk, said that the city had purchased water from BCWD 4 on Monday, but only for a short time.

"We've had a hard time keeping water in the tower," Entrikin said. "We have a lot of people with leaks. One lady's meter showed over 100,000 gallons in just a month, she had a big leak. We did buy water from Bates 4 for about an hour Monday but that's all."

Entrikin said the problem Monday was quickly taken care of and there is no lingering problem.

"I've been asked about it and no, we don't have a boil order," Entrikin said. "We are having a problem keeping the tower full but that's because so many people have leaks and are leaving their faucets dripping to keep their pipes from freezing."

While the weather has moderated it hasn't made it easy to fix the problem with the supply line from Kansas, the soggy ground makes it hard to dig down to the pipeline.

"I heard they're having a hard time with digging the hole," Quick said. "The ground keeps collapsing and they have to dig the hole bigger and stabilize it to keep that from happening."