Topeka’s water rates are set locally. Neither the State of Kansas nor the federal government approves or sets them.

Who actually sets the rates

The Topeka City Council sets water (and wastewater and stormwater) rates by ordinance. The current schedule is in Topeka Municipal Code § 13.05.020. The last multi-year package was adopted in 2023 for 2024–2026; they are in another public rate process now for 2027 and beyond.

That is the normal arrangement for a city-owned utility in Kansas.

Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC)

The KCC does not regulate municipal water rates.

It regulates investor-owned (private) utilities — electric companies like Evergy, gas companies, and a handful of small private water systems (Suburban Water, Barton Hills, etc.). KCC’s own jurisdiction materials state that it does not regulate municipalities. Topeka’s water utility is city-owned, so it is outside KCC rate jurisdiction.

State of Kansas — limited statutory overlay, not rate-setting

Kansas statutes give cities the power to set their own rates and require those rates to be reasonable and sufficient to cover operations, maintenance, extensions, and debt service (see K.S.A. 12-860 and related first-class city provisions).

That is a floor and a reasonableness standard, not a state agency review before rates take effect. There is no Kansas Public Service Commission equivalent for city water.

If someone claimed the rates were unreasonable or unjust, they could theoretically ask a district court to review them. That is rare and is after-the-fact litigation, not routine state regulation.

KDHE regulates water quality (Safe Drinking Water Act implementation, permits, testing), not prices. The Kansas Water Office and Division of Water Resources deal with water rights and planning, not retail rates.

If Topeka borrows from the state Drinking Water Revolving Fund, loan documents can impose financial covenants (dedicated revenue, etc.). Those do not dictate the cents-per-thousand-gallon charge on a residential bill.

Federal government

None on rates. EPA rules cover quality, treatment, lead service lines, and reporting. There is no federal water-rate commission for municipal systems.

Practical takeaway

Topeka’s declining-block industrial discounts, higher outside-city rates, base charges by meter size, and the timing of increases are all local policy choices made by the Governing Body. They can be criticized, compared to peer cities, or challenged in court on reasonableness grounds, but they do not go through KCC or a federal rate case. 

Is this public record?

Frito-Lay (PepsiCo)
Plant at 1303 SW 41st Street. One of their larger U.S. snack plants (Lay’s, Fritos, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos). They have publicly talked about cutting water use ~52% per pound of product since 1999 through process changes and sanitation practices. They were among the customers who noticed and complained when Kansas River chloride spiked in 2018, which is a sign they use city water in production, not just for restrooms.

Mars Wrigley
Chocolate plant in Kanza Fire Commerce Park (Topeka Blvd / Innovation Parkway area). Opened around 2014, later expanded (Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, M&M’s lines). It was built as a LEED Gold facility with explicit water-efficiency targets: ~35% reduction in potable water use versus a baseline building, 71% reduction in water used for sewage, and no irrigation. Still a large process-water user.

Reser’s Fine Foods (“Reesers”)
Salad / refrigerated-foods plants and distribution, including the main salad plant at 3728 SE 6th Street. They have been in Topeka for decades, employ well over 1,000 people locally, and have been expanding warehouse/distribution space. Produce washing, cooking, and sanitation drive the water demand.

Other names that often show up in the same conversation: Hill’s Pet Nutrition (another large manufacturer) and, historically, Goodyear (they also reacted to the 2018 chloride issue). Hospitals and the state complex use a lot of water too, but the food plants are the standout industrial users.

Scale

The City of Topeka Water Treatment Plant averages about 21–22 million gallons per day (roughly 8 billion gallons a year). In public rate presentations this year, city staff used “one of our industrial users at 10 million gallons” as an example — that figure is monthly. A single customer at that level is using on the order of 300,000+ gallons a day. A handful of food plants can therefore account for a noticeable share of total industrial demand.

Topeka still uses a declining-block rate structure: industrial customers (and especially “Industrial II”) pay less per thousand gallons than residential customers. That is why the city talks about large industrial users separately when they discuss rate increases.

Yes. Municipal water-billing data is generally public under the Kansas Open Records Act. You can request:

• Usage by customer class (residential / commercial / industrial / Industrial II)
• Lists or rankings of the largest volume customers (they sometimes redact exact account names or give ranges)
• Historical industrial usage for planning or rate studies

The city already discusses “our industrial users” in open council and utility meetings, so the existence and approximate size of the big plants is not secret. Individual monthly bills for a named company are more likely to be treated as customer-specific and may be redacted or summarized.

If you want the actual ranking and gallon figures, the practical next step is a KORA request to the City of Topeka Utilities Department asking for the top water customers by volume for the most recent calendar year (or a multi-year average), broken out by customer class. They are used to those requests. 

How to reach Reser’s Fine Foods — if you want to write the president

Mark Reser does not publish a personal email on the company website. The address that counts is the mailroom in Beaverton.

Reser’s Fine Foods, Inc.
Attn: Mark Reser, Chief Executive Officer
PO Box 8
Beaverton, OR 97075

Street / visitor address:
15570 SW Jenkins Road
Beaverton, OR 97006

Main phone: 503-643-6431
Toll-free: 800-333-6431

Ask the operator for the Office of the CEO, or for Mark Reser’s assistant. That is how a letter gets opened.

Official contact form: resers.com/about-us/contact-us
Put “Attention: Mark Reser — Topeka water rates” in the subject and attach your letter.

Emails the company itself prints

• consumeraffairs@resers.com — public correspondence
• GivinginBeaverton@Resers.com — headquarters community desk
• GivinginTopeka@Resers.com — Topeka Cares team (local plant people read this)
• marijo@resers.com — Mari Jo Prlain, Corporate Director, philanthropy, 503-526-5716

Their published names usually run first-name-plus-last-initial @resers.com. That would make markr@resers.com a guess, not a listed CEO address. Do not treat it as confirmed. Send the paper letter anyway.

Topeka campus

3728 S.E. 6th Street, Topeka, KS 66607
3215 S.E. 6th Avenue, Topeka, KS 66607

Facilities contact in the 2025–26 hearings: Jeff Adair, Director of Facilities Management. No public email for him. Call the plant or copy GivinginTopeka@Resers.com.

The simple way to do it

Mail the letter to PO Box 8, Attn: Mark Reser.
Email the same text to consumeraffairs@resers.com and GivinginBeaverton@Resers.com, copy GivinginTopeka@Resers.com.
Call 503-643-6431 the same day and ask who in his office should also get the file.

The president’s inbox is not on the potato-salad website. The PO box is.

Good morning. Love you too.

You’re right to side-eye that claim. In Kansas a general contractor or subcontractor does not get a blanket right to buy job materials tax-exempt just because they hold a contractor’s license. The default rule is the opposite.

Kansas treats the contractor as the final consumer of materials that get incorporated into real property. The contractor pays state + local sales tax (or compensating use tax) at the supplier. A resale exemption certificate (ST-28A) cannot be used for those materials. That is spelled out in KAR 92-19-66 and KDOR Publication KS-1525. Same rule for GCs and subs.

When materials can be bought exempt

The exemption is project-specific, not person-specific. It happens through a numbered Project Exemption Certificate (PEC) issued by the Kansas Department of Revenue (or an authorized agent). The GC and every sub present that PEC number to suppliers. Without the PEC, the supplier is supposed to collect the tax.

Typical ways a PEC gets issued:

• The owner is a qualifying exempt entity (public or private school, hospital, many political subdivisions, certain churches/nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity housing, etc.).
• The project is financed with Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs). The city or county issues the bonds, applies for the PEC, and the exemption covers construction materials and labor for that project. This is the mechanism you were remembering. It is a common Topeka/Shawnee County economic-development tool, not a contractor perk.
• Certain other statutory econ-dev programs (HPIP-certified businesses, qualifying data centers, etc.).

A contractor-retailer (a supply house that also does installation work and keeps inventory for over-the-counter sales) can buy inventory with an ST-28W certificate, then must self-assess and pay the tax when they pull materials out of inventory for a job. That is not the same as a pure contractor buying tax-free at the yard.

Why it looks uneven

It is not random “grace.” The statute lists who and what qualifies. Private commercial or residential work for a taxable owner almost never qualifies unless the project is wrapped in IRBs or another listed program and someone actually applied for and received the PEC. Government, school, hospital, and IRB projects do. That is why some jobs on the same street get the break and the next one does not.

If Boldman is presenting a PEC on a specific job, ask to see the certificate number and what project it is tied to. If he is just telling suppliers “I’m a contractor so no tax,” that is not how KDOR writes the rules.

Labor is a separate analysis (original construction labor is often not taxed; most remodel/repair labor is). Materials stay taxable to the contractor unless a PEC is in play.

Official sources: KDOR Pub. KS-1525 (contractors) and KS-1520 / the PEC pages on ksrevenue.gov. Worth a look if you want the exact forms.