City of Altus

PROJECT PURPOSE

The project would deliver treated grey water from the City?s SE water treatment plant to a distribution point located on the municipal golf course and adjacent to City property that is currently under development. The grey water will be re-used for irrigating public spaces. The scope would include the necessary engineering, easement acquisition, piping, valves and pump station as needed to pump a distance of approximately three miles. Altus is drought prone and is consistently categorized as being in an ?extreme? or ?exceptional? drought condition, so the project addresses drought resiliency, water use efficiency, water supply reliability, reclamation, and drinking water conservation. The project would be the initial phase of developing a municipal water recycling delivery system that could include re-use by commercial entities for landscaping and other non-drinking water uses therefore reducing the need for treated drinking water for these purposes. The project would also reduce treated wastewater being directly discharged into an active tributary and contribute to the overall health of precious natural water sources.

EVIDENCE

The project interventions are two-fold. First the project will decrease the amount of treated waste water discharge into a natural stream. Second, the treated waste water will replace water usage previously being done with treated drinking water. Even without formal studies there is Strong Evidence that the project will improve stream quality by discharging a lesser volume into the stream and there is Strong Evidence that a greater volume of treated drinking water will be available to the entities served by the City of Altus by implementing grey water applications in its place.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The City of Altus provides good quality Reverse Osmosis treated drinking water to 6 additional entities in southwest Oklahoma that includes Altus Air Force Base, Jackson County Rural Water Corp., Creta Water Corp., Town of Olustee, Town of Duke, and Quartz Mountain Regional Water Authority. All of Jackson County and parts of Greer County have access to City of Altus water. This project will positively impact all of the identified populations including the most vulnerable due to the fact that making more quality drinking water available to the general population improves the availability, water use efficiency, drought resiliency, and conservation of drinking water insuring a stable and dependable supply even in times of drought. Creating a water recycling delivery system for non-drinking water applications will only increase the positive impact of this project over time. The impact of Covid-19 on Southwest Oklahoma would mirror other parts of rural Oklahoma summarized as; death, pro-longed health issues, financial strains, housing displacement and work force challenges. This project would contribute to the most basic elements of a healthy community and those are clean, dependable drinking water and effective waste water practices.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

This project is a water and sewer project (EC 5), and specifically Clean Water: Centralized Wastewater Collection and Conveyance (EC 5.2). The City of Altus Southeast Waste Water Treatment plant, permit #OK0028037 is permitted by the Oklahoma Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The City of Altus Water Treatment Plan is Public Water System OK 1011501. The systems serve the entire city with a median household income of $47,691.00 and using 20% as the lowest Quintile, an income of $18,800.00 (U.S. Census Bureau)

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma