Dodge City Expands One of the Nation's Largest Water Reuse Systems
Facing chronic scarcity in western Kansas, Dodge City is enlarging a system that treats and reuses water for industry and irrigation.
Dodge City is expanding a water reuse system that has become a national reference point for communities grappling with scarcity, treating municipal wastewater to a standard clean enough to supply nearby industry and irrigate cropland.
The project, decades in the making, allows the city to stretch limited groundwater by recycling water that would otherwise be discharged. With the Ogallala Aquifer under strain across the High Plains, officials say reuse is no longer optional.
"Every gallon we reuse is a gallon we do not have to pump out of the ground," the city's utilities director said. The expansion will add treatment capacity to serve a growing meatpacking and food-processing sector that anchors the local economy.
State water planners have pointed to Dodge City as a template, though they acknowledge that reuse alone cannot offset the region's long-term decline in groundwater.
