For the next decade the Water Company continued to distribute the water supplied from the city's plant. The major factor to affect future decisions was the incredible consumption, credited both to the city's industrial growth and to the improved palatability of the water. During the new supply's first year, the system pumped slightly less than four billion gallons of water. In its fifth year, it pumped nearly seven billion. By July of 1946, daily water consumption had reached a level which exceeded that originally anticipated for 1965. Robert Hess, the superintendent of the city's water supply and filter plant, said on November 1, 1946, "Wichita's water supply is not exceeded in purity in any city in the state," but he went on to emphasize the unprecedented increase in the use of water. "Water use has increased more than 100 percent since the city's plant was put into operation in 1940. On August 8, 1946, the day's pumpage was 34 million gallons, which exceeded all previous peak pumping records by 8 million gallons. During the last two weeks of July the daily demand for water exceeded the capacity of the water supply system and it was necessary to use the old wells of the Wichita Water Company in order to supplement the city's soft water supply," he stated. (Eagle, 8/14/52).

Water shortages had occurred periodically during the first half of the decade, requiring ordinances limiting water usage, especially during World War II when large plants and war villages increased the demand. The water system clearly needed expansion. On November 5, 1946, voters passed a proposed expansion of the water supply and purification plant, allowing a total of $1,240,000 to increase the capacity by 50 percent. The project included $26,000 for purchasing ten well sites, pipeline rights-of-way, and filter plant improvements; and $143,000 for a three-million-gallon filtered water reservoir; $120,000 for an emergency intake and pumping station on the Little Arkansas River; and $112,800 for engineering, legal, and miscellaneous costs.

Work began immediately after the bonds were passed. On November 6, a new 36-inch water line from the Water Company's pumping plant north to Murdock Street and east to Emporia Street was put in. The next day, Hess announced the completion of the wells and said work was continuing on the well houses. Along with the city's efforts, the Water Company was also performing $1,000,000 in improvements on the distribution system, to insure a plentiful and unfailing supply to downtown Wichita and the residential sections nearby. As a result of these and other improvements, Bob Millar, local manager of the company, predicted, "Beginning next summer, Wichitans never again will be short on water as has been the case in several summers past, but they will be able to use all the water they want, provided only that the supply in Harvey County and at Wichita does not run out." This was an unlikely possibility, since the city's expansion work was completed in 1948. (Howse, 1962).

During this period, a major event happened to the Water Company, although it didn't immediately affect the city. On October 10, 1947, the city learned that the American Water Works Company, and all of its subsidiaries, including the Wichita Water Company, had been sold to John H. Ware, president of the Northeastern Water Company. Ware gained control of the large corporation through the purchase of 1,625,000 shares of American, which had been offered for sealed bid on September 25. W.C. Langley and the First Boston Corporation had consummated the purchase for Ware. The combined assets of Ware's organization exceeded $225 million and included waterworks systems in 22 states, serving four million customers, in 232 communities, in addition to management and engineering services provided to various municipally owned systems and private companies. This transaction would gain future significance.

By early 1948, many of the Water Company's projects were complete. Millar reported on March 27 that the company had more than doubled its pumping facilities in the previous year as a result of the one million dollar improvement program. Electric motors drove most of the new pumping equipment, although one unit had a gasoline engine for emergencies. A $950,000, 30-year mortgage bond had been sold to John Hancock Life Insurance to pay for the project January 24, 1947. Millar said the project was to "improve distribution and eliminate for good all water shortages." (Eagle, 3/28/48).  While the capacity of the system was increasing, however, consumption continued to climb, continually breaking records. In a number of the recent summers, including both 1946 and 1947, small scale rationing had been implemented to maintain adequate pressure throughout the city, yet consumption continued to skyrocket.

At the end of 1945, the company had 32,775 customers using a total of 6.40 billion gallons of water, and served 33,769 using 6.67 billion gallons in 1946. In 1947, the usage increased to 7.29 billion gallons, showing an increase in industrial and domestic use. Peak rates also continued to climb. In 1946, the highest demand was 1.88 million gallons per hour on August 8. September 3, 1947, witnessed the highest hourly demand ever of 2.05 million gallons. The war effort and growth of the aircraft industry naturally increased the demand, and the overall per capita water usage was also rising.

Improvements made by the company in an attempt to meet these pressures included a 57 by 39 foot brick building added to the main station which housed five pumping units, a 38 by 24 foot brick structure at the tank site at Murdock and Belmont for three pumping units, and a 107 by 30 foot steel tank at the same location with a two-million-gallon capacity. Also, the pumping units included one with a capacity of 9.0 million gallons per day, four of 4.5 million each, one of 6.1 million, and three of 5.0 million gallon capacity each. Over 2,000 new services and meters had also been installed along with over 26,000 feet of pipe ranging from 16 to 42 inches.

Unfortunately, consumption never slowed to keep pace with the new improvements. In 1948, there was a 6.7 percent increase in water consumption over 1947, a gain of 488.9 million gallons. The total of 7.77 billion represented an increase of nearly 118 percent in ten years. Of course, the city also worked to increase its system. Ten new wells increased the capacity of the well field to 48 million gallons daily (mgd).