TOWANDA, Kan. (KWCH) - A community in Butler County is losing thousands of gallons of water each day due to old pipes. 12 News has followed Towanda’s story for a year after the city found multiple leaks in its water system last February. For a year now, the City of Towanda has been fighting against its own water system.

“We’re still losing a lot of water; we’re losing about 40,000 gallons a day,” said Towanda City Administrator Andy Newbrey. “So about every three or four days, we lose enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”

One of the biggest leaks last year happened at the intersection of Third and Cincinnati. The City of Towanda managed to plug that leak and make improvements, but the city said fixing each leak as it comes isn’t solving the larger problem: the entire system needs to be replaced.

“A lot of our water lines are 100 years old, 80 to 100 years old. They were put in, say, 1910, 1911. So (with) a lot of the galvanized pipes, the scaling pops off, and when that happens, it pops a hole in the line and water comes out,” Newbrey explained.

Replacing the system could cost the City of Towanda millions of dollars, so it’s applying for grants. The city already received one from the Kansas Water Office for more than $300,000. Towanda is also proposing a 1-cent sales tax to raise funds for the project this November.

“I’d be for it. As someone who hasn’t made a decent chunk of money in a while, one cent doesn’t sound like that much, not that much at all, especially to make sure Towanda can stay afloat,” Towanda resident Chance Jefferson-Gannon said.

On March 26, Towanda will hold a workshop to discuss the design for a new water system with the city council, city engineers and consultants.

12 News also reached out to the Kansas governor’s office and the area’s state representative to see if there are any additional emergency fund to help situations like these. As of Thursday night, we are waiting to hear back.