The BPU has been providing dependable, quality water service to the homes and residences in our community since 1909. Today, BPU serves 53,000 water customers in a service area of more than 150 square miles. The service area includes Kansas City, Kansas, Edwardsville, southern Leavenworth County, parts of Bonner Springs and a small section of Johnson County.
The state-of-the-art water system includes a water treatment facility at Nearman, four pump stations, 1,004 miles of water pipes, and the nation’s two largest horizontal collector wells to gather water from deep below the Missouri River. BPU has the capacity to pump 72 million gallons of water a day (MGD) to its customers, and stores 31 million gallons of water in reservoirs and elevated tanks. In addition, BPU services and maintains 6,242 fire hydrants throughout the community.
BPU is a recipient of the “Directors Award of Recognition” from the Partnership for Safe Water, a collaborative effort between water utilities and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, and industry associations. The program was established to provide safe, high-quality drinking water to the public that exceeds certain EPA regulations.
Moreover, BPU's water division has also received the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies' "Gold Award" for Competitiveness Achievement for initiatives in the areas of plant, maintenance, engineering, finance and employee development. Thousands of utilities apply, and only seven were selected the same year as BPU.