Kansas City is flowing blue… again

Editor’s Note: This story, which originally published October 3rd, 2014, has been updated. Daniel Boothe contributed to the story.

Six of Kansas City, Missouri’s, fountains, as well as several privately-owned fountains and fountains owned by surrounding cities are dyed bright blue to celebrate the Royals making it to the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

It turns out there’s a man — a chemist, in fact — behind the process. All of Kansas City’s fountain dye is made at a local company called Blue Valley Laboratories, which does all sorts of water treatment projects for the city.

Blue Valley president Waymon Hofheins said that this time around, he was prepared for the rush on blue dye. Last year at this time, he had sold out of the blue dye three times. This year, Blue Valley Laboratories has enough dye to keep the fountains blue for as long as the Royals are playing. “People got so excited last year with the blue fountains,” he said, “So this year we have plenty,” he said.

The company’s dye is basically made like food coloring “except we don’t go through the certification process because it’s not food,” he said. The colors that are available are blue, green, red, pink, purple, teal, orange, gold and black. Each gallon of dye will change the color of about 1,000 gallons of fountain water. That means it takes about 70 gallons of dye to turn the J.C. Nichols memorial fountain blue.

Hofheins is a chemist and microbiologist by trade, and he developed the fountain dye as a side project for the company. “We try to do it basically at cost; not a big profit item. It keeps up good relationships with the city,” he said.

Although it’s not his company’s primary business, Hofheins says he enjoys making the dye. “It’s a real boost for the city morale for the Royals, and that’s a part of the city spirit, so I’m happy to help out,” he said.

But, fountain dyeing comes at a cost. KCMO’s department of parks and recreation charges $1,000 per fountain for the first day, and $250 per fountain for each additional day. Right now, the Royals are paying that fee.

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The money goes into the department’s “Wish Upon a Fountain” foundation, which goes to the maintenance and restoration of Kansas City’s fountains.

No two organizations may use the same color of dye in one fountain season. That means the Chiefs basically “own” the color red, but Downer said there’s usually no contention about the color blue. The Royals get that color.

So who gets to color our city’s fountains? Any organization can apply to dye one or more of the city’s eight dyeable fountains to raise awareness for a cause. Heidi Downer is the marketing and events manager at the department of Parks and Recreation. “I’m always impressed about how much awareness it causes. People pay attention when we dye a fountain,” she said.

Although the city’s fountain season technically ends on Oct. 31st, Downer said the department will almost definitely make an exception and keep the fountains flowing blue if the Royals make it to the World Series, which extends into November.

Are the fountains blue in your neighborhood? Have you dyed your hair blue? Show us how you’re celebrating the Royals’ postseason run on Twitter @FlatlandKC, or find Flatland on Facebook.