Wichita draws its drinking water from two sources: Cheney Reservoir and the Equus Beds Aquifer. Currently, about 60% comes from Cheney Reservoir, a surface water supply southwest of the city, while the remaining 40% is pumped from the Equus Beds, a vast underground aquifer to the northwest.
Cheney Reservoir: The Primary Source
Cheney Reservoir sits about 25 miles west of Wichita in Reno and Kingman counties. It’s a man-made lake fed by the North Fork of the Ninnescah River and its surrounding watershed. The city has increasingly relied on Cheney over the past few decades, shifting the balance away from groundwater pumping. That shift was deliberate: pulling more water from the reservoir gave the underground aquifer time to recover from years of heavy use.
Because Cheney is a surface water source, it’s more vulnerable to sediment runoff and agricultural contamination from the surrounding watershed. The city runs a sediment control program in the Cheney Lake Watershed to protect water quality before it ever reaches the treatment plant.
Equus Beds Aquifer: The Underground Reserve
The Equus Beds Aquifer is a large body of groundwater stretching northwest of the city. Wichita first tapped into it in 1940, and for decades it was the dominant water source. By the early 1990s, heavy pumping by the city and surrounding agricultural operations had significantly depleted storage levels.
The city responded by shifting more demand to Cheney Reservoir. During the 1993 to 2002 period, city pumping from the Equus Beds dropped from more than half of Wichita’s total usage to slightly less than one-third. That reduced demand, combined with natural recharge, allowed about 182,000 acre-feet of storage volume to recover between 1992 and 2000. That recovery represented roughly 64% of the total depletion that had accumulated over the aquifer’s first 52 years of use, according to U.S. Geological Survey monitoring.
Today the aquifer serves as a critical backup and supplemental source, providing resilience during droughts or periods when reservoir levels drop.
How the Water Gets Treated
Raw water from both sources goes through treatment before reaching your tap. The city is in the process of building the Northwest Water Treatment Facility, a major new plant that will replace the aging Main Water Treatment Plant. The new facility will have the capacity to treat 120 million gallons per day, serving Wichita along with surrounding communities, industries, and wholesale customers. The EPA provided financing for the project through its Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program.
Wichita also operates a separate treatment system called the WATER Center (Wichita Area Treatment, Education and Remediation) that deals with groundwater contamination. This facility uses a series of air strippers, devices that force air through water to remove dissolved chemical contaminants like chlorinated solvents. The volatile compounds pulled out of the water break down in sunlight into basic components. Treated water leaving the plant is tested monthly to confirm it meets federal discharge standards.
What’s in the Tap Water
Wichita publishes an annual water quality report covering contaminants detected during the previous year. The 2025 report, covering 2024 testing data, shows the city meeting all federal standards for lead and copper, two of the most closely watched contaminants in any municipal system.
For lead, the 90th percentile reading was 3.21 parts per billion, well below the federal action level of 15 parts per billion. No testing sites exceeded the threshold. For copper, the 90th percentile was 0.18 parts per million, far under the 1.3 parts per million action level. Both contaminants, when detected, typically originate from corrosion in household plumbing rather than the water supply itself.
The city monitors some contaminants on a multi-year cycle rather than annually, because concentrations don’t change significantly from year to year. So some results in the report may be older than 12 months while still being considered representative of current water quality.
Why Two Sources Matter
Having both a surface reservoir and an underground aquifer gives Wichita flexibility that many cities lack. During a drought, reservoir levels can drop quickly, but the aquifer provides a buffer. During wet years, the city can lean on Cheney and let the aquifer recharge. This dual-source approach is essentially what saved the Equus Beds from continued depletion in the 1990s and remains central to how Wichita manages long-term water security in a region where rainfall is variable and agricultural demand for water is high.