Oklahoma House of Representatives
February 10, 2004

By MIKE W. RAY
House Media Division Director
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A handful of loans and grants a state agency approved Tuesday will pay for drilling new water wells and installing new water supply lines, and will help finance development of a centralized wastewater collection and treatment system.

-- Pawnee County Rural Water District 5 was awarded a $68,000 Rural Economic Action Plan grant to extend its service lines, to add new customers, Rep. Larry Ferguson and Sen. J. Berry Harrison announced.

Blueprints indicate the project will feature installation of a little over 3.4 miles of 4-inch diameter durable PVC plastic pipe, and construction of a chlorine station.

According to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, Pawnee County RWD#5 assumed control of Ralston Water Co. and its 33-year-old water delivery system, which consists of a water storage standpipe, two pumps and approximately 11 miles of water line. The new district has 60 customers in an area extending from south of Ralston toward Masham, records show.

-- Mayes County Rural Water District 2 received a $3,085,000 loan to construct a water transmission line from the Oklahoma Ordnance Works Authority to the district.

Blueprints indicate the project will include installation of 14.5 miles of water line, construction of a metering station, connections to existing water supply and transmission lines, and acquisition of right-of-way.

Mayes County RWD#2 has approximately 2,400 customer meters in the Chouteau and Inola area, ledgers reflect.

The long-term, low-interest loan to the district was issued by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, said Rep. Larry Rice, Sen. Stratton Taylor, and Rep. Jerry Hefner.

-- Rattan received a grant from the Water Resources Board to help pay for construction of a municipal sewage collection and treatment system, Rep. Randall Erwin and Sen. Jeff Rabon announced.

Residents of the Pushmataha County town have individual septic tanks. However, soil conditions in the area are not suitable for septic systems, officials report; consequently, raw sewage surfaces, posing health hazards for the community.

To resolve the problem, town officials plan to construct a centralized, small-diameter gravity-flow sewage collection system with one lift station and a lagoon system to treat the wastewater.

The project cost is estimated at $1,150,000. It is to be financed with an $800,000 grant and a $250,000 loan from the Rural Development Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, coupled with the $100,000 REAP grant from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

-- Tyrone received a $270,189 low-interest loan from the Water Resources Board to drill a water well, construct a well house and install new water meters, Rep. Gus Blackwell and Sen. Owen Laughlin announced.

-- Hendrix-Kemp Rural Water District 9 received another $99,999 REAP grant to continue upgrading its water delivery system, said Rep. John Carey and Sen. Jay Paul Gumm.

Blueprints indicate the project will entail drilling another water well, constructing a well house and installing a new pump, installing a mile of 4-inch-diameter pipe plus valves, and conducting some laboratory analyses.

Hendrix-Kemp RWD#9 was established in 1970 and supplies water to approximately 300 customers in southern Bryan County, along the Oklahoma/Texas border, records reflect.

Documents indicate a $99,999 REAP grant from the Water Resources Board last year was used to sandblast and paint the district's two water storage tanks, replace water transmission lines, install four fire hydrants and a couple of blow-offs for water testing, erect a security fence at the district's three water wells, acquire a standby gas
generator to power the wells during emergencies, install 50 meters to replace malfunctioning units, and install gate valves that enable sections of the water delivery system to be closed off whenever repairs need to be made, without having to disable the entire network.

Those improvements were required to bring the rural water district into compliance with standards mandated by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, state and local officials reported.

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