OKLAHOMA CITY – Grants to Fort Cobb, Martha and a Stephens County rural water district, and loans to Carnegie, Anadarko and Elgin, were approved recently by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
• The Jackson County community of Martha received a $45,729 emergency grant that is to be coupled with local funds of $8,069 to finance repairs to its wastewater treatment system.
The wastewater system experienced a failure “due to transformer issues” that resulted in the destruction of two sewage lift station pumps, town officials said. The $53,798 will be used to repair or replace critical components, including the pumps, piping, elbows, guide rails, valves, and the control panel, records indicate.
Martha’s Utilities Trust has 88 customers, OWRB ledgers reflect.
• The Fort Cobb Public Works Authority was awarded a $143,456 Rural Economic Action Plan grant.
The PWA’s water distribution system “experiences a loss of revenue” because of inaccurate readings from the town’s mechanical water meters.
The REAP grant will be used to install approximately 256 new AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) meters. AMI units are commonly referred to as “smart” meters and provide for remote collection of water use data in “near real-time,” improves service outage management and quicker response to water line breaks.
The Fort Cobb PWA has 390 customers, according to the OWRB.
• The Water Board approved a $1 million loa n to the Carnegie Public Works Authority on July 15. The loan proceeds will be coupled with $45,000 from the Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments.
The funds will finance improvements to the Caddo County city’s wastewater treatment system.
If all provisions of the loan are met “to the satisfaction of the OWRB,” the loan “will be forgiven in total without fees for administration or interest.”
• The Water Board approved an emergency grant of $84,992 for Stephens County Rural Water District #1, based in Velma. The district will provide matching funds of $14,998.
The rural water district, like several other areas in Oklahoma, experienced heavy rainfall in February that severely damaged its booster pump station, off icials reported. The $99,990 will be used to constru ct a new booster pump station to replace the damaged pump.
The district supplies potable water purchased from Marlow and serves 554 customers in and around Velma and Alma, OWRB records show.
• The Water Board approved a $1,454,850 loan to the Anadarko Public Works Authority from the state’s Drinking Water State Revolving fund, which will be matched with a $600,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant.
The $2,054,850 will be used to construct an elevated water storage tank, the OWRB reported.
The loan will be secured with a lien on r evenues of Anadarko’s water, sewer, sanitation and electric systems, records show.
Anadarko’s debt coverage ratio is 3.05, according to Lori Johnson, chief of the agency’s Financial Assistance Division. That means the Caddo County town has enough revenue to repay the loan three times over.
• The OWRB also approved a $4.9 million loan to the Elgin Public Works Authority on July 15. The loan proceeds, coupled with $416,739 in local funds, will be used to refinance a previous loan for an upgrade to the city’s water system and to make improvements to the wastewater treatment system.
The PWA received a $1.5 million, 15-year loan in 2024 from Chickasha’s First National Bank to drill and complete a new water well to replace one that collapsed, said Elgin Mayor JJ Francais, who also is associate publisher of Southwest Ledger.
The OWRB loan will “spread out” the repayment period to 30 years and thereby reduce the payments, he noted.
Approximately $3.85 million of the loan proceeds will be used to improve the community’s sewage treatment and disposal system, records indicate.
“We have a lagoon system, and spray the treated water on agricultural land,” Francais related. “If a heavy rain occurs, the treated wastewater flows into a nearby creek.” That results in a wastewater “bypass” for which the state Department of Environmental Quality could issue a fine, he said. “We’re working on creating an alternative method to treat and dispose of our wastewater,” Francais said.
Elgin has grown “from a 2A town to a 5A town,” he told the Water Resources Board. “We’re trying to get our sewer system where it needs to be.”
Elgin’s City Council voted July 8 to impose a $6 fee that will appear on residents’ monthly water bills starting next January. Proceeds from the fee will be earmarked for water and wastewater improvements and debt service payments on the OWRB loan. The fee will be a fixture on utility bills for at least the next three decades, to retire the loan, Francais said.
The State Loan Program Revenue Bond Loan will be secured with a lien on Elgin’s water and sewer systems, the city’s 2-cent city sales tax and 2-cent use tax, and a mortgage on the municipality’s water and sewer systems, Johnson said.
Elgin has been “a long-time customer” of the OWRB and has four outstanding loans whose balance totals $4.6 million, she said. The city has a debt coverage ratio of 1.66 times, Johnson said, which means Elgin has sufficient revenues to pay its debts.