{"id":20389,"date":"2014-06-19T03:09:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T08:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=20389"},"modified":"2014-06-19T10:01:33","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T15:01:33","slug":"normans-choice-wastewater-reuse-or-reliance-on-oklahoma-citys-pipelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/06\/19\/normans-choice-wastewater-reuse-or-reliance-on-oklahoma-citys-pipelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman’s Choice: Wastewater Reuse or Reliance on Oklahoma City’s Pipelines"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lake<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Lake Thunderbird, near Norman, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Oklahoma\u2019s third largest city is at a water crossroads.<\/p>

Norman is updating its strategic water supply plan to make sure it has enough to meet growing demand over the next 50 years. And the city council\u2019s choice is between reliance on Oklahoma City and water from southeast Oklahoma, or reusing its own wastewater.<\/p>

After two years of study and public input, more than a dozen plans were narrowed down to two, portfolio 14 and portfolio 13.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Portfolio 14<\/h4>

Lake Thunderbird is the main source of Norman\u2019s municipal water supply, and under portfolio 14, would someday soon also be where the city\u2019s wastewater is discharged. Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske:<\/p>

\u201cAcross the country sewage treatment plants are changing their names to water reclamation or water resource centers,\u201d Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske says, \u201cbecause water is a resource you get to use over and over and over. We don\u2019t make water. It\u2019s the same water that\u2019s been here for tens of thousands and millions of years.\u201d<\/p>

Here\u2019s the idea: Water would be pumped from Thunderbird, cleaned, and distributed to the community. Then, when someone takes a shower, uses the kitchen sink, or flushes the toilet, that water would be cleaned again. And instead of sending it down the Canadian River \u2014 like the city does today \u2014 it would come right back to Lake Thunderbird, and the cycle would continue.<\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske<\/p>\n<\/div>

As StateImpact has reported<\/a>, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality can permit such projects now, after Norman lawmakers pushed for a wastewater reuse measure this past legislative session that Governor Mary Fallin ultimately signed.<\/p>

Grossed out yet? You shouldn\u2019t be. J.D. Strong, executive director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, says places like El Paso, Las Vegas, and Phoenix have proven the safety of water reuse, and Norman isn\u2019t the only Oklahoma town considering it.<\/p>

\u201cGuymon has been talking about it. Clinton has been talking about it. And there are a few others out there. So, it\u2019ll be a matter of, sort of, who gets it done first \u2014 at least officially,\u201d Strong says. \u201cLike I tell everybody all the time, if you\u2019re relying on a surface water source for your water in the state of Oklahoma, you\u2019re most likely drinking somebody else\u2019s wastewater discharge.\u201d<\/p>

He cites the example of El Reno\u2019s wastewater flowing down the North Canadian, then being used for municipal drinking water in Oklahoma City.<\/p>

That\u2019s one of the Norman City Council\u2019s options \u2014 augmenting Lake Thunderbird.<\/p>\n

Portfolio 13<\/h4>

The other option \u2014 portfolio 13 \u2014 is similar. Both call for better groundwater treatment, more wells, and conservation.<\/p>

The key difference<\/i> between the two plans is portfolio 13 \u2014 instead of augmenting Lake Thunderbird \u2014 relies on a partnership with Oklahoma City to pipe more water from southeast Oklahoma.<\/p>

Utilities Director Komiske says he expects the council to make a decision within its next few meetings, and residents seem to be leaning toward the more self-reliant, cheaper, option \u2014 though both will cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of decades. Going in with OKC would mean massive upfront costs.<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to build the whole pipeline, even if you only use it half full, you\u2019ve got to build this whole pipeline,\u201d Komiske says, \u201cand that\u2019s over a billion dollar expense just for that pipeline.\u201d<\/p>

Norman would have to commit to sharing that cost, which brings up another problem.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re the only city in the State of Oklahoma that has to have our customers vote on their water rates. So it\u2019s very, very difficult,\u201d Komiske says. \u201cOther communities would say, \u2018Okay, here\u2019s a plan. We\u2019ll go forward and we know we can raise rates.\u2019 Well, in Norman we\u2019d say, \u2018Here\u2019s a plan. We\u2019d like to go forward. We have to ask our customers if they\u2019re really willing to pay for this before we can even take that step forward.\u2019<\/p>

Unsurprisingly, Normanites don\u2019t charge themselves more for water every time they get a chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma\u2019s third largest city is at a water crossroads.Norman is updating its strategic water supply plan to make sure it has enough to meet growing demand over the next 50 years. And the city council\u2019s choice is between reliance on Oklahoma City and water from southeast Oklahoma, or reusing its own wastewater.After two years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[33,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20389"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20406,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389\/revisions\/20406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}