By Celia Hack/KMUW
Sedgwick County and the city of Wichita passed several measures this week to finally begin unlocking $2.5 million the state of Kansas made available last year for health screenings for residents living above groundwater contamination.
On Wednesday, the County Commission signed onto an agreement with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment that will release $1.5 million in state funds for cancer screening.
“This is a step forward,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ablah, professor and vice chair in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. “I think it has a load of opportunities to get community members engaged again, in feeling like they’re being heard and they’re being taken seriously, that their concerns are actually a problem.”
Another $1 million is available from the state if the county, city or private donors can provide $1 million in matching funds. On Tuesday, Wichita approved a portion of that match: $125,000
“We’ve heard a lot of terrible stories from the community about what they have experienced, what their family has experienced,” said council member Brandon Johnson, who represents the impacted area.
“So I feel good about … moving from talk to action.”
The Kansas Legislature made the state dollars available in June 2024 following public outcry about a toxic chemical spill near 29th and Grove that runs under several historically Black neighborhoods. Union Pacific Railroad contaminated the groundwater with a carcinogenic chemical known as trichloroethene in the 1970s or 1980s, though many residents first learned about it in 2022. A health study later found high rates of liver cancer in the area.
Since the state dollars became available, representatives of the city, county, state, local health clinics and the Kansas Health Foundation have been locked in conversation – some of them contentious – about how the funds could be used.
Over the protests of some lawmakers, Johnson and County Commissioner Ryan Baty wanted assurance that the dollars could be used to buy medical equipment such as MRI machines to carry out the testing. Johnson and Baty said they recently received that assurance, triggering the two bodies’ votes this week.
Next steps
Because of the agreement signed Wednesday, $1.5 million in state dollars will flow to the county to allocate.
County manager Tom Stolz said the county aims to pass the money to a third party, possibly the Kansas Health Foundation. The third party would distribute the money to health care providers to undertake the testing.
“Any provider in the community with the ability and mission to provide such tests would be considered, including federally qualified health centers, Guadalupe Clinic and other providers who provide service to underinsured and noninsured people,” Stolz said.
Ablah said the money will likely be distributed using a request for proposal process, where providers could lay out their plan and the dollars they need to test community members for free.
But to maximize the amount of money the county can get from the state, it must raise $1 million in local match funding. County officials say they will likely vote in the near future on whether to provide $125,000, as the city did.
That leaves $750,000 still to be raised. Johnson said the Kansas Health Foundation is helping with that.
Local match dollars must be provided to the state by June 30 in order to get the full $1 million match.
And any subrecipients receiving money from the county must spend it by the end of 2026, or else risk having to return it to the state.
Concern and frustration
The sluggish process to utilize the state’s dollars has to not come without critics.
Former City Council member Lavonta Williams, who grew up near the groundwater contamination, said the city should give more matching dollars. The city pulled the $125,000 from about $157,000 left over from the proceeds of the sale of the Hyatt Regency hotel.
Williams asked why the city wouldn’t use the entire bucket of money.
“For me, this is saying those lives don’t matter,” Williams said. “You’re saying they don’t matter – but they do. They deserve more. We deserve more.”
The rest of the Hyatt proceeds are being directed toward transit funds.
At the county, commissioner Jim Howell felt the dollars coming into the county were a “Band-Aid” to the long-term challenge of cancer screening, which may require affected residents to be tested over a lifetime. Even if the dollars are spent on medical equipment like MRI machines or ultrasounds to do the testing, those will require recurring expenses like staff or maintenance, he said.
“This is a lousy way to solve a problem,” Howell said. “It doesn’t really solve a problem, honestly. It just creates a tiny little opportunity for a few people for one time.”
Baty said the county is doing its best to respond to state funding that it didn’t have the chance to weigh in on before it was passed.
Howell also contested that the dollars should be focused on moving residents in the plume from well water to city water. Drinking contaminated groundwater is unsafe, according to Sedgwick County.
“My biggest concern is we’re not even addressing the issue of people drinking contaminated water today,” Howell said. “… And we don’t have any plan to make sure that they have another option for safe drinking water.”
Union Pacific announced in 2023 that it would work with the city, county and state to survey the impacted neighborhoods to find out how many homes had private wells. The railroad said it would offer funding to homes with unsafe wells for the cost of connecting to city water.
The survey was meant to completed at the end of June 2024. When contacted about the results of the survey, Union Pacific directed KMUW to the state department of health and environment.
More contamination sites?
In addition to 29th and Grove, there are dozens of other active contamination sites in Sedgwick County; Baty says there’s at least 220. Some, such as the Forest Hills neighborhood in east Wichita, have similar chemical contaminants and similar health concerns.
Stolz, from the county, said that the latest funds from the state must prioritize residents who have been impacted by the plume at 29th and Grove. But ultimately, the dollars can serve residents throughout the county that have been exposed to contamination.
“I know I have sites down south and sites out east and west and all over the county that we’re going to have to address,” said City Council member Mike Hoheisel. “But we also want to recognize the particular disparity that goes on within this particular neighborhood, as well.”
This article was republished here with the permission of: KMUW