WAURIKA — When it comes to the future of the community’s most valuable natural resource, Waurika city administrators can envision a perfect world — a “perfect water world.”

Gazing into a crystal ball, Public Works Director Lester Lehew said, “What we’d love to do in the future, is go completely to reverse osmosis and blend well water with surface water to make the best quality and quantity of drinking water in this part of Oklahoma.”

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a purification process that is the foundation of a perfect water world. It’s the “Holy Grail” for entities like the Waurika Public Works Authority, which are in the business of purifying and distributing water.

An RO system produces water that’s close to the pure liquid that once ran through streams and rivers in North America’s past.

With an RO system, the WPWA could give its customers a product that meets and exceeds current standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). It would also give Waurika a leg up in the water sale industry.

Reverse osmosis would allow the city to make the most of its share of water from Waurika Lake, a massive supply source. At the same time, the system would justify the expense involved in reopening wells in the area.

It’s not a universal panacea, but RO is one of the best purification processes currently on the market. As Lehew, Major Gayle Johnson and City Manager Chuck Brown point out, though, there’s the rub.

“Reverse osmosis systems are extremely expensive,” Brown said. “Small towns like Waurika don’t have the money it takes for such a big change. Almost all rural towns still use old [chlorine-based purification] systems, and they can’t afford what it would take to change everything at once.”

Still, Johnson noted, city officials do have a master plan to lay the groundwork for creating a perfect water world. Several economic measures are being put in place to bring the city’s financial house in order as a prelude to the future.

FINANCES FIRST ON PRIORITY LISTCity officials agree they can’t invest in converting the water purification system without first correcting an economic conundrum. Waurika Public Works Authority should be the city’s money-generating entity, however, the WPWA is currently being kept afloat by the city’s General Fund.

That’s an untenable situation, and changing it puts the following measures high on the priority list:

• Coming into compliance with the debt service rate set when the city received two loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program. Those loans, which covered the cost of a new sewer lagoon in 1998 and building the Waurika Water Treatment Plant on U.S. Highway 70 in 2001, total over $2 million. The city is behind in meeting its debt service rate, which requires generating $1.25 in revenue for every $1 of loan debt owed.

• Freeing the debt Waurika and other cities in the Waurika Lake Master Conservancy District owe the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and making it possible for the WLMCD to purchase remaining storage water at the lake, before outside entities gain access to the supply.

• Continuing to update the infrastructure of the current water system, which means maintenance and improvements at the water treatment plant and the city’s sewer lift stations. Essentially, the city must get the best use possible from the current system, until a perfect water world can become reality.

While those priorities are being addressed, city government must also meet other obligations not connected to water.

“If our citizens have been paying attention, they’ll understand that we’re working as quickly as we can with the resources we have. We have to be able to balance how funds are spent,” Johnson said. “We can’t go borrow funds to put in an RO system, and then not be able to take care of the other services our citizens want and need.

“We’re still going to have to be able to pay employees, and make sure we have qualified people working for us.”



SEARCHING FOR FUNDS, RIGHT MIXLehew said there is a plan on the drawing board to gradually begin a conversion to reverse osmosis. However, funding and practicality limit how quickly that conversion can be made.

“I’m hoping to get grants that would let us go to RO in stages. We could start blending water from the lake with well water, but the only feasible well right now is one that’s south of Winton’s (Auto Repair on Highway 70), which the city already owns,” he said.

Some residents have suggested the city and WPWA return to using wells located to the south and west of town, which were once the primary source of Waurika’s water. Brown said that solution sounds good in theory, but it’s not cost-effective.

“When you look at the cost of re-drilling those wells, re-casing them and meeting today’s (EPA and DEQ) standards, you’re talking about spending big time money,” the city manager pointed out. “You’d have to put in new trunk lines, because we can’t use the old ones, and you’d have to buy new pumps to pump the water.

“We’d be looking at spending well over a million dollars. For that kind of money, we could almost put in an RO system.”



KEEPING PACE WITH STANDARDSIn trying to bring their water systems up to modern standards, a problem Waurika and other communities encounter is the standards themselves. While few deny the valuable role the EPA plays in public safety, the federal agency is continually increasing water quality standards and mandated requirements.

For years, trihalomethanes (THMs) have been a concern in municipal water systems throughout the nation. Cities like Waurika continually update water purification systems to meet EPA and DEQ standards, but there’s a cat-and-mouse game in the mix: As cities try to attain required levels for THMs, the federal agencies change the standards.

“Right now,” Lehew said, “we have until 2013 to get our total trihalomethane (TTHM) levels in compliance. One reason we want to start using an RO system is that it would help us dramatically with our TTHMs.”

While communities focus on TTHM compliance, Brown noted the EPA routinely finds new concerns requiring regulation.

“Right now,” he said, “cryptosporidium is the big thing with (the EPA and DEQ).”

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan pathogen found in water that can cause a gastro-intestinal illness called cryptosporidiosis.

“There’s also a lot of concern these days about E. coli (virus) in water systems,” Brown said. “E. coli, cryptosporidium, TTHMs — pick your poison. There’s always something new going to come along, and the standards are always going to go up.”

Although there is skepticism about some federal government standards, Johnson said municipalities have limited options.

“When the EPA comes out with standards for municipalities, there’s not necessarily proof of a public-health threat. Sometimes, it’s just that they ‘think’ there’s a possible problem,” she said. “Some of these requirements they have are arbitrary things, but we have to attempt to comply or it can cost us a lot of money.”

“The problem,” Lehew added, “is that there’s always organisms in water, whether it’s standing water or underground. So, there’s always going to be something. It’s a never-ending fight to stay in compliance.”



‘WATER WARS’ HAVE BEGUNEven if Waurika can acquire the purification equipment needed to reach a perfect water world, the future holds uncertainty.

Water is necessary to support life, but it’s also a commodity that can support municipal economies. As Waurika works to make its water distribution system a money-maker, other communities in the area are doing the same.

Waurika sells water to the Township of Ryan and to Rural Water District No. 1, and also has the capability to make bulk water available to other sources. But several other towns in the Waurika Lake Master Conservancy District are also in the water sale business.

At the same time Waurika is raising water rates in an attempt to meet it’s outstanding debt to the USDA, the City of Comanche, a member of the WLMCD, has begun selling water to Rural Water District No. 1 at a price that undercuts Waurika’s.

“Lawton just built a huge new water plant so it can get more water out of (Waurika) lake, and one reason they want to do that is to sell it,” Brown said.

“We’ve already gotten into ‘water wars’ with other towns, and we’re always looking for new water markets. That’s why (commissioner) Scott Cathey has been working with the Indian tribes at Randlett to see if we can sell them water if they expand their casino operations.”

“One thing you’re seeing more and more of is regional water systems,” he added. “Smaller water companies are disappearing because it’s getting harder for them to meet (federal) standards and increased demand and such. We’d like to become one of those regional water systems.”

And the water wars go beyond state boundaries. The state of Oklahoma is involved in lawsuits with the state of Texas, which would like access to Oklahoma water sources. Texas is interested in getting access to Beaver Creek, which is a main source of water flowing into Waurika Lake.

In addition, other neighboring states are eying Oklahoma’s water supply.

Oil and natural gas entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens has deemed water the “new oil” of the future. “And when T. Boone Pickens tells me that, I believe him,” Brown said. “We’ve got a great source out at the lake, and we’ve got to be able to make money out of it.”

Waurika’s historic link to water has shaped the community and the area. City officials agree maintaining that connection is essential if there is to be a perfect water world in the future.

“We have to remember that we must keep local sovereignty over our own water, and that we never have to depend on anyone else for it,” Johnson said. “We can’t give up the rights to the water other people have worked so hard to provide for us.

“Waurika Lake and the water around us are a resource we have to care for and protect.”