TOPIC ONE:
COMMENTS FROM HEAVENER CITIZENS AND BUSINESSES ON CITY WATER QUALITY ISSUES AND AFFECTS TO THEIR LIVES AT 2 TOWN HALL MEETINGS HOSTED BY STATE REPESENTATIVE LUNDY KIGER AND CALLS TO HIS OFFICE
• Current water treatment plant built approximately 1962.
• Water pipes are old and city doesn’t know where all are located.
• Water went out on June 14th for 8 hours and the 15th for 12 hours.
• Fire Hydrants weren’t turned on to drain until Monday. Citizens told to run water for 15 minutes to clean the color, and always charged for flushing this unusable water.
• Water is often brown or black and people can’t drink or wash with it.
• People are forced to buy bottled water or buying and installing expensive water filers or filtration systems.
• Many homes and businesses on the south end of town have no water pressure when the Splash Pad is turned on. By law each water meter is required to have a minimum of 25 lbs. of water pressure at every customer’s home or business or is a violation.
• One business south of town is losing customers because water is required to produce the product they sell.
• Most businesses, especially restaurants are buying and changing water filters weekly.
• Many water bills range from $125-$150 before having to flush water.
• Appliances and water lines are serviced by plumbers more often due to water quality and debris with many appliances having to be replaced at owner’s expense such as hot water tanks, dishwashers, washers, faucets and water filtration systems being installed.
• Some older people are experiencing burning on their bodies after showering.
• You can fill a bird bath and the next day an oil film will develop on top of the water.
• If a house, school or nursing facility catches on fire we are in more danger and loss of life during water line breaks.
• We have complained to city leaders for years and the water quality doesn’t change. No one cares to listen
• There are some days that we do receive clean water, but we still won’t drink it.
• The treatment plant closes at 3:30 daily and closed on weekends.
• Businesses are affected and losing money and customers and closing due to water line breaks.
• Employees complain they lose pay when the business closes which makes it difficult to buy food and make their monthly payments.
• Why would any new business want to locate here with bad water?
• OK Foods lost one of their biggest customers to water being down or poor water quality.
• According to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, OK Foods employees 650-700 people in Heavener with payroll between $20 and $21.5M and pays approximately $400,000 annually in county property taxes.
• Only 0.3% of Oklahoma industries have greater employment in the state than OK Foods in Heavener.
• We don’t want to lose OK Foods or any business or resident from the community over dirty water.
TOPIC TWO:
CITY LEADERS SAY THEY’VE TRIED BUT CAN’T FIND ANY MONEY
• In a meeting with city leaders and HUA, I asked members of the Oklahoma Water Resource Board and KEDDO to attend and hear city problems and see if there is help available.
• At the meeting OWRB announced the city was eligible for up to $2M in loans for city water improvements and infrastructure.
• KEDDO announced the city applied for a $450,000 grant, but did not qualify due to not having their annual audit completed in time to meet the criteria of the grant.
• The city’s annual audit for 2017 was completed in October 2018.
• Without a timely audit the city will never qualify for grants being missed annually.
• I’m happy to see the discussion of a Book Keeper is on tonight’s agenda.
TOPIC THREE:
CITY AGREES ON A COOPERATIVE PLAN AND AGREED TO ANNOUNCE
• I was extremely happy for the people of Heavener when we reached a verbal agreement on a joint plan with the city, KEDDO and state agencies to help identify all water issues as quickly as possible.
• Even though I received word this week the city has changed directions of that agreement, I’m supportive of the city’s actions as long as there is a plan in place to reach the same goals of clean and safe drinking water and keeping the public informed.
• After watching these same issues now for decades, I will not turn my back on the citizens of District 3 living in Heavener and will confirm all steps and conclusions in the city’s plan until its end.
TOPIC FOUR:
MEETING WITH THE OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
• To ensure the public is kept informed and up to date, the Team we selected and the city decided later not to utilize, will travel with me to OKC tomorrow to meet with engineering officials and discuss with DEQ what this Team believes could be the largest part of the reasons that Heavener is producing dark and dirty water. The overfeeding of chemicals may be the biggest and easiest issue to fix, but overfeeding is a violation.
• After looking at water samples, pictures and hearing personal comments directly from Heavener residents, our Team believes a complete evaluation of the operations and maintenance of the Heavener Water Treatment Plant is vital. Like many, we believed that the problem of discolored water was mostly due to old and outdated water pipes and lines. But now we have concerns with overfeeding of chemicals and the plant not manned enough.
• Water lines will still need to be replaced at some point soon, but our Team believes the discoloration of the water may be from the Ph. being off with higher alkaline that releases encapsulated materials in the pipes, and the brown or discolored water is really solid materials not recognized by WT operators before going through the treatment filtration. Dirty water must be treated properly before being filtered or it will get through and into the pipes and into your homes and businesses. Ferric (oxidized) iron (rust) may possibly be going through pipes due to adding more Manganese at the treatment plant.
• Purple Water is caused by adding too much Potassium Permanganate to oxidize the iron. Purple water occurs from overfeeding of chemicals and the treatment plant possibly unmanned at times and a violation.
• When water with Manganese comes into contact with chlorine, it producers Black Water. (After passing through the filtration system to remove solids) These solids should be removed before being released into the public water piping system.
• If operations is truly the largest reason or even a reason for dirty water entering the homes, city leaders should make this the Top Priority immediately and have a 3rd party engineering company available to evaluate the treatment plant, operations and report back with the facts.
• If this evaluation is not completed to provide assurances to the public, I’ll make request that state agencies get involved to a level that everyone has more comfort of what is actually found and provide to the public.
• DEQ or state agencies will not be able to help assist in fixing all issues unless they are related to overfeeding chemicals, maintenance or operation violations or falsification of records turned into the state.
• In fact, under the Color of Water test water can be dirty and not in violation for color alone and is classified as a nuisance by DEQ.
• But dirty water is also subject to Turbidity levels and is a violation the city doesn’t want to risk when producing dirty most days.
• If we can get an agreement from the city to make this a priority in working to rectify this problem for good, it would be in the best interest of everyone.
• If they city decides not to cooperate and keep the public informed, I will request DEQ and other state agencies to constantly monitor, inspect and confirm that no overfeeding chemical violations occur.
• Specific to homes and businesses, DEQ does not test water at the faucet. But the Oklahoma Health Department does and I’ll work with them to test often for any violations at the faucets that could be caused from overfeeding chemicals or from other maintenance or operation violations.
• I also have concerns with water line breaks occurring and possible loss of life and property from fires during these times.
• And lastly, I have concerns from the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent needlessly on bottled water, clothing that turns brown, water filters and systems having to be added and replaced, and home and business appliances being lost from dirty water and costs to install.
TOPIC FIVE:
LOCAL POLITICS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
• As stated, my priority is for the people of District 3 living in Heavener and receiving dirty water for consumption and use.
• I’m not beholden to anyone, or any specific business or industry. But I am beholden to everyone, and ALL businesses and industries in my District.
• One of the messages I’ve received multiple times and has become apparent as a real issue is the fact it appears that local politics has played a part in derailing a good Joint Plan, and that’s a shame for the people.
• My biggest concern of local politics killing this agreed Plan comes from the possibility of someone serving this city as a leader who may have a Personal Conflict of Interest that’s getting in the way of doing the right thing.
• If I hear or see this being a real possibility during implementation of the city’s New Plan to fix these problems for its citizens, I will personally take steps to ensure that no statutory laws are violated or conflicts of interest on decisions related to water were, or are made from a city leader having a relative working for the company that’s treating city water.
• I also want to state that if the contracted company producing water for the city is found in violation or cutting corners on operations or maintenance outside of the city’s current contract, I will take all steps necessary to ensure the company is meeting their contractual requirements in Heavener and other Oklahoma cities.
CLOSING:
My hope is the HUA will take what has been said by your residents seriously and you will implement a plan of action now. My office is here to work with you, but regardless, my office is here first to work with the people of Heavener who live in House District 3.
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