Rural Logan County water and sewer district receives $1,400,000 water system funding from OWRB

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Logan County RWS & SWMD No. 1 (District) received approval for  $1,400,000 in funding Wednesday from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to improve the District’s water infrastructure. Construction of upgrades and improvements to the District’s water system will be funded by the Oklahoma Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).

The District will utilize the proceeds to relocate an existing standpipe, construct a storage tank, construct a pump station, construct a chemical feed system, and install a water line from the Town of Langston to the Town of Meridian in order to abandon Meridian’s wells with poor water quality.  The project will help meet the State of Oklahoma’s Water for 2060 goals by focusing on improving water efficiency and supply security through regionalization of separate water systems.

Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the District’s customers will save an estimated $2,740,000, compared to traditional financing.  Local officials attending the OWRB’s monthly meeting in support of the loan application included Marilyn Barton, Chairman and Buddy Thompson, District Manager.

The DWSRF program is administered by the OWRB and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The DWSRF program has provided approximately $916 million in drinking water loans to provide communities the resources necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure that protects our valuable water resources statewide.

Since 1983, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has approved over $3.3 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma.

J.D. Strong, executive director of the OWRB, and Scott Thompson, executive director of the ODEQ, express their sincere appreciation to State Senator Senator AJ Griffin and State Representative Jason Murphey for their support of the DWSRF program.