The last of Lawton’s industrial water users, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., has agreed to a rate increase that brings it in line with its peers.
With price increases in the cost of chemicals, labor and equipment required to maintain Lawton’s water sources in order to provide potable water to Lawton and surrounding areas, “It is imperative, due to federal requirements, to align all industrial water users to the same water rate when the private contracts between the Lawton Water Authority and these industrial users expire,” said Rusty Whisenhunt, the city’s public utilities director.
“For the last couple of years we’ve been working with our industries to adjust their water rates,” he told the Water Authority on May 27. “We had multiple rates but needed to make sure our industries were paying an equal rate.”
The new schedule for industrial users will be phased in incrementally over a five-year period.
The initial water rate adjustment for Republic Paperboard and for Fort Sill – Lawton’s heaviest water user, according to City Manager John Ratliff – went into effect April 1, 2024, and was set at $2.35 per 1,000 gallons. Republic had been paying 87 cents per 1,000 gallons of treated water – a rate that had not changed for almost 26 years.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is currently paying $2.55/1,000 gallons of water, Whisenhunt said.
The rate will increase to $2.78/1,000 for Republic and Fort Sill on April 1, 2025, and on July 1, 2025, for Goodyear.
The water rate for all three industrial users will align at $3.01, an increase of 23 cents per 1,000 gallons, on April 1, 2026; rise to $3.25/1,000 on April 1, 2027; and increase 25 cents to $3.50/1,000 on April 1, 2028, Whisenhunt said.
Starting April 1, 2029, water rate adjustments will be tied to the South-Central Consumer Price Index based on any change from 12 months earlier. However, the maximum year-over-year increase will be limited to 2%.
The Fiscal Year 2025-26 water rate hike will generate approximately $95,000, Whisenhunt said.
Sanitary sewer rates for Fort Sill and Republic Paperboard also are increasing incrementally and yearly: from $1.23 per thousand gallons effective April 1, 2024, to $2.25/1,000 starting April 1, 2028. Goodyear is already paying a retail rate for sewer service, Whisenhunt told Southwest Ledger.