In September of 2008 the Cities of Cottonwood Falls, Strong City and Chase County rural Water District #1 decided to perform a study regarding the construction of a Regional Public Water Supply System. The group received a 50 % cost-share grant from KDHE for the development of a preliminary engineering study.  In May 2011 Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 26 was organized.  Each of the three entities appointed two members to the district.  The current members of the board are:  Mike Cahoone, President; Kevin Collins, Secretary; Bud Sisson, Treasurer; G.W. Yeager, Lisa Vega and Bruce Wells.  

In September of 2011 the district received a grant from the Bureau of Reclamation in the amount of $150,000 to complete a feasibility study.  

In December of 2011 the district submitted an application for funding to USDA-Rural Development, and received approval of loan funds in the amount of $2,359,000 and grant for $1,911,400.  The application was approved in September 2012.  In December, the district was awarded CDBG grant funds of $1,000,000 for a total of $5,270,400 for project funding.  

In March 2013 a pretreatment and reverse osmosis pilot plant was set up.  The water quality was determined to be better than expected.  

Bids for construction of the new water supply system are scheduled to be let by June 1, 2014.

Along with this project, the cities of Strong City, Cottonwood Falls and RWD #1 are making improvements to their distribution systems.  RWD started their project in April 2014, Cottonwood Falls is scheduled to begin June 2014 and Strong City plans to advertise for bids by the end of June 2014.