Tenkiller Waterworks’ proposed increases “do not include the cost of sewer, which is currently an outrageous $73.70 a month,” Marvin and Becky Barber complained.
TWW’s water and sewer systems are owned and managed by U.S. Water Services Corp. (USW).
Members of the Lake Tenkiller Harbor Owners Association (LTHOA) are “required to use TWW/USW’s sewer system at an exorbitant cost that is not regulated” by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission “and has increased significantly since Tenkiller Waterworks Inc. obtained the company from Southwest Water Co.,” the Barbers wrote.
“Septic installation has increased from $3,000 in 2019 to over $7,000 since USW has taken over,” Kathy Harry wrote on behalf of the LTHOA.
In addition, problems with the sewage system include frequent backups and slow drainage, and multiple sewage lift stations reportedly are leaking wastewater “into the ground,” customers say.
TWW has no wastewater treatment plant. Effluent is pumped to a sewage lagoon, said Troy Rendell, USW’s vice president of investor-owned utilities.
The Barbers noted that Cherokee County is “one of the poorest counties in Oklahoma…” It has “a poverty rate of 20.9%, children in poverty rate of 24.1%, and median income was $25,439 in 2021,” they wrote. And the LTHOA, whose members “mainly live in RVs and mobile homes,” is “highly comprised of senior citizens on fixed incomes such as Social Security.”
Income levels in Cherokee County rank 71st among Oklahoma’s 77 counties, Michelle Hale wrote. Residents are “elderly, veterans, native Americans, retired, and low-income.”