In August of 2017, KDHE requested assistance from GSI in response to contaminated groundwater discovered south of Haysville. Over 250 residences are using well water believed to be impacted by the contaminant plume, thought to be caused by chlorinated solvents used by a former American Cleaners dry cleaning facility. KDHE initiated an emergency response for the residences with contaminant levels exceeding KDHE and EPA concentration limits, and GSI mobilized with our plumbing contractor partners to begin the process of connecting residents to potable City of Haysville water systems.

ASAP Plumbing & Construction and Bowers Plumbing Company of Wichita rejoined GSI after several successful projects of similar scope, and Iverson & Westfall Plumbing of Mulvane joined the project as their first partnership with GSI. All three contractors have decades of installation and water service experience and offer invaluable technical experience as each business or residence is evaluated for meter placement and connection to city water mains.

GSI establishes contact with each property owner to determine availability for a first-time meeting with GSI staff and our licensed plumbing contractors, where the residents’ concerns regarding their specific property are weighed against the timeliness and cost of connection. All costs associated with the services provided are paid by the KDHE and City of Haysville, providing residents with clean water at no personal expense.

Once individual properties have been assigned to a contractor, those contractors set an installation schedule with property owners and the connection process begins. The contractors minimize the time residents are without water, digging or boring new lines in place prior to disconnecting private well water supplies, often resulting in a total downtime without water of less than 2 hours. Residents are given the option of retaining their well for irrigation purposes or having their well plugged and permanently abandoned by GSI.

KDHE has been in regular contact with the public, available at several public information meetings and via routine visits to the area to meet with individual property owners, and continues to estimate a total project timeline of less than one year.

While the Haysville site is abnormally large in both size and impact, contamination from dry cleaning sites is not uncommon. Both state and federal regulations have drastically reduced the number of current sites creating environmental concerns, but the errors of past decades continue to be revealed and remediated. KDHE and GSI will continue to locate and identify sites of concern as they partner through the Dry Cleaning Program to ensure safe, clean water for the residents of Kansas.