OKLAHOMA CITY – Several Oklahoma communities and rural water districts, including Guthrie and Logan County District 2, are set to receive significant savings on their outstanding drinking water infrastructure loans thanks to action taken this week by the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division.
Through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program, the OWRB and Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) offer low-interest loans to assist community and rural water systems with water infrastructure projects.
This week the OWRB completed a defeasance of water system loans related to the agency’s 2010 DWSRF bond sale which means the agency has set aside enough cash to fully service the loan debt associated with the 2010 bonds. Each community and water district was afforded the opportunity to choose how the defeasance would benefit their outstanding loan.
The Guthrie Public Works Authority is seeing the benefit on two separate outstanding DWSRF loans; an $8,000,000 DWSRF loan and a $7,320,000 DWSRF loan that were both used to construct a water treatment plant improvements. The Authority has elected to pay off the remaining balance on both of the outstanding loans.
In addition to Guthrie, 27 other Oklahoma communities or rural water districts will see either reduced interest rates on their water system loans, a reduction in their loan term, or in some cases, an opportunity to pay off their loan prior to original maturity. The savings to all water systems involved in the bond defeasance totaled more than $3 million.
“We are excited to be able to offer these significant savings to our DWSRF borrowers. We hope the savings will help these water systems continue to serving their community in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” said Joe Freeman, Chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division. “The DWSRF program has been a huge success for water infrastructure improvement in Oklahoma. In sum, the program has awarded 180 loans totaling $1.044 billion,” added Freeman.
The OWRB Financial Assistance Division assists communities in their efforts to protect and conserve Oklahoma’s water resources for current and future generations through cost-effective financial products, technical assistance, and high quality customer service. The DWSRF loan program is funded by bonds, EPA capitalization grants, loan repayments, investment earnings, and state matching funds. The DWSRF is administered cooperatively by the OWRB and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ). Since 1983, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has approved over $3.4 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma.
Logan County District 2
Logan County RWD No. 2 has elected to receive reduced payments on an outstanding loan that was originally used to install an automatic meter reading system. The original loan amount was $920,000 and after the defeasance this week the District will save approximately $28,453 throughout the remaining term of the loan.
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