Olpe city officials are hoping for good news with water samples currently being tested as residents deal with a boil water advisory.
Residents of Olpe and Rural Water District No. 3, or most of southwest Lyon County south of Road 100 and west of Kansas Highway 99, have been in the boil water advisory since Thursday afternoon after the main transmission line from Emporia developed a leak. Mayor Keith Pimple says Olpe brought samples to the Emporia treatment plant for testing, and Emporia Public Works Director Dean Grant says Emporia started a process for getting lab-certified for wastewater tests last year so it could test in-house and avoid lengthy return times through private labs. It also recently got certain personnel certified for different sampling processes. The end result is Emporia should be able to test for any city, town or rural water district needing test results.
The process still takes 24 hours to complete, and with a sample submitted Friday, the earliest Olpe could be cleared from the boil water advisory is Saturday afternoon. If that sample does not pass, a new sample would have to be submitted and it could then be Monday before the town is cleared.
