A multimillion-dollar construction project in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge will incorporate a new headquarters, maintenance facility and fire department, officials said.
The project, which is part of $25.1 million in federal funds that will be spent at the refuge, was placed on the construction list because of old infrastructure and the lack of drinking water since 2017, refuge manager Amber Zimmerman said. The new headquarters is being funded through the Great American Outdoors Act.
Repairing the old infrastructure would have been more costly than building a new facility, Zimmerman said. The new headquarters will be about a quarter mile from the visitor’s center.
“Building new is intended to reduce the deferred maintenance projects,” she said. “By putting all of these departments together, we are creating one centralized location and will help us to coordinate our communications. It would have been expensive to run water to all those places.”
In 2017, Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality determined water levels at the refuge were too shallow and could not be used for drinking water. The water could have been drinkable if it was run through a treatment plant, but that option proved too expensive.
Since then, drinking water has been made available to the visitor’s center, Holy City of the Wichitas and the Doris Campground. Meanwhile, employees at the refuge headquarters use drinking water from five-gallon jugs.
“This new project will provide a reliable source of drinking water,” Zimmerman said.
The refuge went at least 3.5 years without potable water after the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality issued multiple notices of violations because of insufficient treatment of water in 2016. Four areas – the visitor’s center, Doris Campground, headquarters and Holy City of the Wichitas – were affected after tests showed the presence of coliform and E. coli bacteria. The issue was resolved in 2019 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed an agreement with Comanche County Rural Water District No. 4 to supply drinking water to the refuge. The rural water line eventually was built, and drinkable water started flowing into the refuge in 2021.
Construction on the new headquarters should be finished by the end of the year, but likely won’t open until spring or summer of 2024 due to inspections and move-in time. The primary contractor is Chickasaw Defense Logistics LLC. The project will also demolish unnecessary infrastructure, according to government data.
The refuge work also includes smaller-scale building, road, bridge, trail and fishing pier repairs. Refuge officials will continue to work on other deferred maintenance projects such as fencing and public use facilities. The wildlife refuge is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Aside from the new headquarters, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already completed work on the Comanche Lake Dam by installing seismic and hydraulic retrofits.
The refuge is known for its freshwater lakes and streams, ancient granite mountains and roaming herds of bison, longhorn and Rocky Mountain elk while also offering high-quality recreation including fishing, wildlife photography, camping and kayaking.