Work under way for new Broken Arrow water treatment plant

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. - Broken Arrow residents may not have to worry about rationing water by the time the summer heat rolls into Oklahoma next year, according to city officials.

The City of Broken Arrow on Tuesday awarded a $850,000 contract for the construction of a mile-and-quarter-long 20-inch water main to connect Broken Arrow to Tulsa.

Broken Arrow Engineering Director Kenneth Schwab told 2NEWS the construction set to begin near the end of the year should be complete by April.

“Obviously, with what we went through last summer, that stressed our system. We will have it ready for this coming summer,” he said.

Not only is this project in the works but well under way is the construction of Broken Arrow's new $64 million water treatment plant east of town near the intersection of 353 ^rd East Avenue and 71 ^st Street.

Funded by a loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the city awarded a $57 million contract to Columbus, Kan.-based Crossland Heavy Contractors in March and shovels turned earth at the site shortly thereafter.

Now six months into the project, present on the site are a completed clear well structure, a membrane building and a reservoir, among other features.

Due to be finished in July 2014, the completed facility will be able to process up to 20 million-gallons a day during the winter and up to 28 million-gallons in the summer.

Schwab said as average daily demand currently stands at 12 million-gallons a day, peaking out at 27 million-gallons in the summer, he believes the plant should adequately meet the city's water needs.

However, it is for when it does not that Broken Arrow is building the new water main to Tulsa and has entered into an agreement with Tulsa to supply the city with up to 20 million-gallons a day.

“We only anticipate only using 3-5 million though,” Schwab told 2NEWS.

The new water treatment facility will replace the city's current plant constructed in 1956, a plant rated to deliver 8 to 10 million-gallons a day.

According to Schwab, the facility which the city has not been using since the early '80s is so old and antiquated it can only produce 6-7 million-gallons a day at best – and even then not up to Department of Environmental Quality standards.

Since the closing of the plant, the city has been purchasing its water from the Oklahoma Ordinance Works Association in a contract due to expire at the end of this year.

Schwab told 2NEWS the city will purchase a contract extension to get the city through the next year until the new water plant comes online.