OKLAHOMA CITY — Two southwest Oklahoma communities have received grants to pay for improvements to their wastewater treatment facilities.
Grandfield’s Public Works Authority received a Rural Economic Action Plan grant from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board in April 2022 for a project required to comply with a consent order from the state Department of Environmental Quality.
However, during the interim “another of the consent order tasks has become more urgent,” officials of the Tillman County town informed the Water Board.
Consequently, Grandfield requested, and received, permission to combine the OWRB grant with other funding sources to improve the sewage lagoon dike and install riprap to protect the dikes against wave action.
The $555,779 project will be financed with a $443,968 Community Development Block Grant, a $59,041 REAP grant from the Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments, and the previously approved $66,560 REAP grant from the OWRB.
The Water Board also approved an emergency grant for the Town of Ringling.
The Jefferson County community’s sewage treatment facility consists of five lagoons and one lift station. Two submersible pumps at the lift station are inoperable; they were replaced but stopped working again soon afterward. The problem was traced to “an electrical surge issue from the power source,” the OWRB was informed.
The town will install new pumps with VFD voltage protection and other electrical surge protection devices, clean the wet well to restore to full pumping capacity, and other associated equipment, local officials said.
The project will cost an estimated $67,559, to be financed with the $57,425 emergency grant and $10,134 in local funds, ledgers reflect.