CHICKASHA — The first invoices on construction of the town’s new water treatment plant were paid last Monday by the City Council.
Wynn Construction of Oklahoma City billed the Chickasha Municipal Authority $4,141,750 for work performed between May 1 and June 25, according to Freese and Nichols, engineering firm on the water plant project. F&N received a paycheck, too: $104,172.
F&N is the design professional and construction manager for Chickasha’s water plant project. The Oklahoma City company will be paid $3,950,000 for its engineering scope of services during construction and commissioning of the new water plant, records show. F&N will provide a construction manager for the duration of the work.
Ground-breaking was held May 7 near the existing treatment plant at 500 E. Delaware. The new treatment plant will replace an aged facility that went into service seven or eight decades ago; the exact year is unclear.
A $71,759,090 contract with Wynn Construction to build a modern water treatment plant was executed in early March by the City Council and the Municipal Authority, and construction began in April. The contract calls for “substantial completion” of the work within 700 days, and “final completion” of the contract in 730 days – two years, in April 2028, Mayor Zach Grayson noted.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board approved a 30-year, $67,660,000 loan in 2023 to finance Chickasha’s new water plant. Also, “a little over” $5 million in reserves were committed to the project, city officials said. In addition, the city collected interest on the loan for about three years.
The Municipal Authority remains current on its debt service payments to the OWRB. Most recently, the CMA made a $343,497 payment to the OWRB for July through September; that included $95,000 in principal and $248,497 in interest. The CMA also made payments of $343,497 on April 20 and again on April 29.
The CMA applied for a supplemental $6 million loan from the Water Board, to replace the reserves dedicated to the water plant project, “so we’ll have some money to handle any emergencies that may arise,” City Manager Jim Crosby explained.
However, a condition of receiving the supplemental OWRB loan is that the city complete its Fiscal Year 2025 audit, said Lori Johnson, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division. That audit was due to be submitted to the State Auditor and Inspector’s Office by Dec. 31, 2025, but is six months late, SA&I records reflect.
An amortization schedule provided by Joe Freeman, now-retired chief of the Water Board’s Financial Assistance Division, shows the interest rate on Chickasha’s $67.66 million loan is 5.20%through 2029; drops a full percentage point to 4.20% from 2040 through 2048; then creeps up to 4.325% through the last payment on Sept. 15, 2053.
The estimated total cost of the water plant project is $84 million, which includes the $71.75 million construction contract, $10.86 million in design and engineering fees, $1.31 million in bond costs, and $100,000 in incidental expenses.
Chickasha residents approved a permanent 1.25% sales tax by an overwhelming margin on Aug. 8, 2023, to retire the water plant debt and finance other capital improvements; the levy went into effect Jan. 1, 2024. The 1.25% rate replaced a Capital Improvements Program sales tax of three-fourths of a penny that expired at midnight Dec. 31, 2023.
New plant designed to produce 6 mgd
The new WTP is designed to produce 6 million gallons of potable water each day, with the ability to expand production to 8 mgd “as future needs grow,” the mayor said. Production of 6 mgd “should get you out to the horizon, to about 2060-70,” Jason Cocklin, a professional engineer with Freese and Nichols, told the city council.
Although the new plant will employ “conventional” water treatment methods, technological advancements in water purification surpass what was available when Chickasha’s water treatment plant was built 60 or 70 years ago.
The new plant will use a multistep treatment process that includes pretreatment, flocculation, sedimentation and filtration.
New elements will include upgraded pumping systems; gravity filters and associated backwash components; chemical storage and feed facilities; a partially buried 800,000-gallon clearwell to receive flows from the filters and to provide a storage reservoir; a transmission pump station and transmission main to convey treated water to the distribution system; an on-site septic system for sanitary waste from the treatment plant; standby power generation; three lagoon cells for holding “residuals” from the treatment process; and a filter/ administration building to house gravity filters, office and laboratory space, and electric equipment.
Existing plant can’t keep pace
Chickasha’s existing treatment plant was designed to process 6 million gallons of drinking water daily. Now, though, its “functional capacity” is 4.2 mgd to serve the 17,000 residents of Chickasha and the nearby community of Norge, Cocklin and Clay Herndon, F&N’s project manager on Chickasha’s water plant, told the council.
The existing plant will be demolished after the new facility becomes operational, according to Gary McDaniel, project manager for U.S. Water Services Corp., which has managed/ operated Chickasha’s water and wastewater treatment plants for several years.
However, the CMA voted Jan. 5 to issue a “notice of termination for convenience” to U.S. Water Services to sever the CMA’s water and wastewater systems operations agreement with USW effective June 30, 2026.
The new operations contract was awarded to Wright Water Corp. established in 2005, based in Mustang, and owned by Chickasha native Shawn Wright.