COPAN, Okla. — The consistent boil advisories and orders placed on hundreds of neighbors in and around the town of Copan are over, according to town officials citing Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
"It's been tremendously hard on the residents...because there's been no consistency," Copan mayor Eric Mumma told 2 News Nov. 19.
While delivering bottles and containers for families and the local school district was the normal for the better part of two years, Mayor Mumma said his biggest goal in his second stint in charge of the town was to get a long term fix.
"And get a new set of filters now," the mayor said. "That was the quickest process to get us back off of the boil advisory. So we took that advice."
WATCH: Copan mayor promises more improvements after boil order lifted
Mumma said he and other town officials worked for more than a year to secure grants of more than a half-million dollars' worth of repairs to the Copan water treatment facility in addition to replacing two giant filters long overdue. Two remaining filters are planned to be online within the next two months.
"The next goal is to fix Filters 3 & 4," he said. "After that, it's going to be the clarifiers. After that, I'd like to see another water tower be put in town. Then from thereon, it's just having a five-year plan: every five years, figuring out what needs to be changed or upgraded."
- Previous coverage>>> Town of Copan coping with more water quality issues
New Copan resident Mallory Cole is looking forward to guaranteed water quality ahead of moving into her new home in the town's main strip, but has already installed home filtration.
"I did still see some particulates come through our faucet (this week), so I'm sure once they get the last two (filters) done I would feel good to just drink it out of the tap, but until then I think I'm going to hold off drinking it straight out of the tap," Cole said.
The mayor hopes the improvements can also mean a better reputation for Copan.
"(I can promise) we're not going to quit. We're going to keep it going," Mayor Mumma said.
While the 2023 drought brought Lake Copan levels dangerously low and made the water muddy beyond help of the treatment building, Mumma said that won't be a concern now that lake levels are back to normal and pumping 70,000 gallons a day into each of the two new filters.
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