In the mid-1980s, Dennis Ashcraft, fresh out of Cloud County Community College where he majored in agricultural science, had come back to his native Holton to start a career — but what that career would be was yet to be determined. “I’d graduated from college and I wanted to stay in this area,” Ashcraft said. “A position came open at the city’s wastewater treatment plans, so I applied for it, thinking I could do that until I figured out what I wanted to do.” On July 1, 1984, Ashcraft began his tenure with the city. Forty years later, he smiles and says, “I’m still here.” Today, the primary goal for Ashcraft, who’s been the City of Holton’s water and wastewater superintendent since 1997, and the crew he works with remains ensuring that Holton’s water customers can turn on their kitchen faucet, pour a glass of water and drink it and have nothing to worry about while they’re quenching their thirst. He’s also in charge of the Public Wholesale Water Supply District 18 water treatment plant, which pulls water from Banner Creek Reservoir for treatment and sale to customers in Holton and in Jackson County Rural Water District 3. “The water running out of this plant goes to RWD 3 and the city, and that’s about 12,000 people — that’s 12,000 people that we’re responsible for the quality of their drinking water,” Ashcraft said. “It’s something the whole crew takes seriously. They understand that they’re responsible for every drop of water that comes out of there.” Over the past 40 years, Ashcraft has seen a number of changes that have affected his line of work, whether those changes have been mandated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or dictated by changes in technology and water filtration systems. “The number of things we’re required to test for in the water has obviously grown,” he said. “None of the rules ever get less stringent.” Those rules, Ashcraft said, include the federal Clean Water Act, with its changes in structure that trickle down to KDHE and to his departments, whether they involve water and wastewater treatment procedures or keeping an eye out for unwanted chemicals in treated water. Ashcraft has also borne witness to the changes in Holton city government in the past four decades, starting with his early years as a city employee. Holton’s utility departments were organized differently in those days, when the city’s main supply of water was Prairie Lake, he said. “Back then, the distribution crew handled the electric lines, the water lines and the sewer lines,” he noted. “Lyle Lee was my boss, and he was in charge of the light plant, the water plant and the sewer plant.”
Source: Holton Recorder
