Holton commission looking at update to water plan

Holton’s municipal water conservation plan is in need of an update, and at the Holton City Commission’s first meeting of 2026, commissioners received a copy of an update that is currently being reviewed by the Kansas Water Office.

During the commission’s regular meeting on Monday, commissioners met with Water and Sewer Superintendent P.J. Oldehoeft to discuss the city’s water conservation plan, which Oldehoeft said was last updated in 2014 and needs to be updated every three to five years.

Oldehoeft presented commissioners with a copy of the updated plan for review, adding that the plan was not up for commission action that evening because “it’s in the review process” with the Kansas Water Office and noting that a similar update needed to be approved for Public Wholesale Water Supply District 18 first since that district is now the city’s primary water source.

One of the main focuses of the plan update, Oldehoeft told commissioners, is “how we respond to droughts.” The plan mainly sets “trigger points” for declaring water watches, warnings and emergencies due to such situations as low storage capacity in the city’s water tower, excessive demand, low groundwater levels and high treatment plant operations.

Another trigger point as described in the update involves low pool levels at Banner Creek Reservoir, water from which is treated by PWWSD 18 and sold to the city and to Jackson County Rural Water District 3 customers. Oldehoeft said that when PWWSD 18 declares its own water watches, warnings and emergencies, those advisories are passed on to the city and to Jackson RWD 3.

“That kind of needed to be in place before we could do Holton’s plan, since we get a lot of our water from District 18,” Oldehoeft told commissioners.

KWO also needs to give its approval to the plan before the city can adopt it, Oldehoeft said, noting the office will “go through it and make sure there’s nothing in there that’s alarming to them.”

Oldehoeft also noted that Holton residents are using less water than they did 25 years ago, pointing out that in 1999, the city used 146 gallons per person per day, but in more recent years, that daily average use has backed off to 93 gallons. He added that the per-gallon-per-person use did not take into account industries that use large quantities of water, such as Johnsonville.

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