By Mike W. Ray
Southwest Ledger
LAWTON – Rumors which gained traction last weekend, claiming that Lawton is dumping raw sewage into East Cache Creek, are inaccurate, according to a report filed with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
The city’s treated wastewater contains no solids, the latest Bio-Aquatic Testing Report that the City of Lawton submitted to the DEQ shows. That report also shows that treated wastewater is not harming aquatic life.
The treatment plant discharges treated effluent at two locations: into Nine Mile Creek, which converges with East Cache Creek, and to the reservoir at Public Service Co.’s Comanche Station power plant east of Lawton, which uses the water to cool its generators.
What is undisputed is that the City of Lawton has been under multiple “consent decrees” imposed by the DEQ for at least two decades because of the municipal wastewater collection and treatment system.
And despite the city’s assurances, some citizens are still skeptical.
John Fedrick of Lawton told Southwest Ledger on Monday that after he was apprised of the rumors last week, he collected one water sample from Cache Creek in the vicinity of Flower Mound Road and Southeast New Hope Road (County Road 1750) “and then a couple of samples at other locations.”
All three water samples were delivered to a private laboratory in Oklahoma City for analysis, he said. “I don’t know what the results are yet.” Fedrick added, “If this is untreated waste, this is a public health hazard and I’m concerned.”
Lawton spending
big money on
WW treatment
Public Utilities Director Rusty Whisenhunt and City Manager John Ratliff confirmed Monday that the City of Lawton is investing $100 million to renovate the wastewater treatment plant, which is at 8104 SE 15th Street between Gooden Road and Tinney Road.
Phase I of the upgrade includes replacement of the administration building, influent pump station, grit removal system, trickling filter mechanisms, electrical conduit duct bank, electrical switchgear, automatic transfer switch for standby power, primary effluent pumps, polymer feed system, and several additional upgrades.
That project started in 2022 and was expected to take approximately 15 months to complete, city officials said. Those improvements are costing an estimated $85 million.
The additional $15 million will be for design of the next phase and to finance interim stopgap measures, Caitlin Gatlin, the city’s communications director, told the Ledger. For example, “We had an aeration blower that failed last December, so we brought in two rental blowers at a cost of $22,000 per month until new blowers can be installed,” she said.
The improvements are being financed with a pair of Clean Water State Revolving Fund loans of $47 million and $72.9 million to the Lawton Water Authority, Whisenhunt informed the City Council recently.
Phase II of the wastewater treatment plant overhaul will cost $90 million and “aims to expand solids handling, UV (ultraviolet light) disinfection, and sludge digestion,” Whisenhunt said.
That project is under design in a $6 million contract financed from a 2023 federal Communities Grant, city records show.
Repeat offender
Lawton’s sewage collection and treatment system has been a repeat offender of unauthorized releases of wastewater.
The DEQ imposed a consent order on the City of Lawton in 1997 and again in 2000 for impermissible discharges of wastewater, a violation of state law and the Oklahoma Administrative Code. DEQ issued more consent orders in 2003, in 2011 and again in 2013 for failure to “address ongoing unpermitted discharges of wastewater.”
The DEQ issued a Notice of Violation to the city twice in 2019 for “untreated wastewater” pooling at the southeast and southwest corners of manholes at 38th Street and Lee Boulevard.
Mayor Stan Booker signed yet another consent order on April 15, 2021, and Scott Thompson, executive director of the DEQ, signed the document 25 days later.
The city was directed to conduct a sanitary sewer evaluation survey and afterward to submit a schedule for rehabilitation of the malfunctioning sewage collection system. The city performed the evaluation and developed a schedule for renovation of the wastewater collection system.
The City of Lawton has been cited repeatedly by the agency for wastewater violations.
For example, for nearly two years, from Jan. 17, 2010, through Dec. 11, 2012, the city reported 78 incidents of overflows of treated and/or untreated wastewater from the city’s sewage collection and treatment system. Those discharges occurred at myriad locations in town, and several sites had multiple sewage overflows, records show.
The volumes of wastewater ranged from a mere five gallons to 759,000 gallons one time and a million gallons on two occasions, ledgers indicate. The overflows were blamed on debris, torrential rain, grease, pump failures, vandalism, tree roots, blockages, structural failures, collapsed lines and cave-ins.
The consent order dated May 10, 2021, listed 227 violations that occurred at the 47-year-old wastewater treatment plant during a 30-month period: from September 2018 through February 2021.
Lawton’s wastewater treatment plant went into service in 1977, records reflect.
Because of persistent violations of wastewater discharge permit limits at the sewage treatment plant, the 2021 consent order was imperative, the DEQ asserted.
That mandate compelled the City of Lawton to initiate an “immediate” corrective action plan by Feb. 1, 2022, and complete construction by Nov. 1, 2024, on an “interim” corrective action plan.
Millions being spent
on new sewer lines
In a related matter, the City Council awarded a $4 million contract to McKee Utility Contractors earlier this month for construction of the South Wolf Creek Trunk Expansion in southwest Lawton.
That job will feature “rehabilitation” of approximately 32,000 linear feet of sanitary sewer lines between Southwest 52nd and Southwest 67th streets south of Lee Boulevard. According to Gatlin, the project will entail “total replacement” of an 18-inch line with 36-inch and 42-inch sewer mains.
The contract will be financed from a $30 million Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, Whisenhunt said.
McKee won the contract even though the Prague company’s bid was more than twice as high as the engineer’s estimate. A second bid was deemed to be “unresponsive.”
Another reason the contract was awarded to McKee harkens back to a consent order the state DEQ reached with the City of Lawton, requiring the city to rehabilitate 191,000 linear feet of failing sewer lines.
Construction/Rehabilitation for Phase III Sewer Rehabilitation “is to be completed by Jan. 1, 2025,” city staff informed the City Council. “To meet this deadline, it is imperative the Public Utilities Department contract out the South Wolf Creek Trunk Expansion #5 Project, as our field workers continue completion on other projects…”
The contract calls for the work to be “substantially complete” within 240 calendar days after a work order is issued, and to be finished entirely no more than 30 days later.
Seventeen projects in Phase III of a sewer rehabilitation program that began in 2014 have been completed, and six other projects are under construction, Whisenhunt related. More than 175,000 linear feet (33 miles) of sewer lines have been installed during Phase III, he said.
That $18 million program has been financed from a multi-year capital improvements program, records indicate.
Phase IV of a sewer system rehab program is intended to replace sewer lines throughout the city. That project will cost $10 million and will be financed from that same $30 million CWSRF loan.