How Oklahoma’s Credit Rating Affects Your Tap Water

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

Logan Layden / StateImpact Oklahoma

New construction surrounds the rusting remnants of Broken Arrow's old water treatment plant.

Building new water systems is expensive, so Oklahoma has a program to help communities pay for these projects.

Here’s how it works: Cities and towns apply for a low-interest loan through the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The state has a better credit rating than most cities do. So going through the state gets them a better deal on a loan.

The program has been around since 1985, securing more than $2 billion for water projects across the state. But there was a problem. The state only has so much credit, and a Broken Arrow’s project pushed it to the limit.