Next time water comes out of your tap, don’t take it for granted. Wichita’s only water treatment plant could fail at any moment. “It keeps me awake at night . . .” said Alan King, Wichita’s director of public works and utilities. “Every hour that thing is running, it could fail — right as we’re talking, right now.”

It’s unclear how Wichita plans to provide safe drinking water if its water system shuts down. The state says the city’s emergency water supply plan does not “define clear options for providing deliverance of treated, safe drinking water to its customers during an emergency which is the purpose of the plan.”

Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell steered what could become the largest contract in the city’s history to his political supporters, golf partners and friends, a Wichita Eagle investigation has revealed.

In Wichita, city employees can be fired for accepting gifts, travel or meals from anyone doing business with the city, according to the city’s code of ethics. Those rules don’t apply to the mayor and city council.

Wichita Mayor-elect Brandon Whipple said he sees his victory over Mayor Jeff Longwell as a win for the people of the city, who he said are fed up with backdoor deals, favoritism and influence peddling at City Hall.