Lone Grove Water Trust Authority

PROJECT PURPOSE

Emergency Preparedness is a priority that the City of Lone Grove must achieve in the following years. Lone Grove faces a very present deficit in preparedness in the event of emergency at our water wells. Achieving our goal of preventative action requires purchasing & installing back up generators on two of our water wells. Not only dose Oklahoma have ice and freezing temperatures that can halt operation at the wells, but it also faces the dangerous effect of high winds and tornados. It is common for tornadoes to destroy power lines and transformers because of the severe weather and high winds emitted during their duration. As of now our water well have no back-up generators for electricity. The results to the city could be catastrophic. With a 2020 census population of 5,193 Lone Grove Must install generators in the 2 most producing water wells. Backup generators will act as the primary source of protection against extreme weather events electrical outages. Our community depends on our ability to operate and serve uninterrupted water supply to our customers.

EVIDENCE

During the State of Emergency in the February 2021 freezing winter storm our wells lost electrical power. This caused our heaters to shut down and our well to freeze. Without water production our water towers went empty. When there is no water to fill the service lines, they can become air locked. This event resulted in many families being with out water for days. After the wells began producing again the demand for water made it extremely difficult to return to normal holding levels in our tower. Electricity is so very crucial to maintaining water supply.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Lone Grove has been impacted by the pandemic with job losses, virtual schooling, social distancing, and companies transitioning positions into working from home. With families staying at home more it has become a priority to keep up the increasing water demands of the Lone Grove residents. Back up generators will provide power to the water well efficiently once electrical power has been lost. It is at utmost importance that the transition between the power down & power up is seamless. The cost of unpreparedness is the quality of living, health, and dignity for the residents during times of need. It is simply not feasible for families in our community to not be able to bathe ,cook, or drink water for days. When the City of Lone Grove water supply was lost in the winter storm of February 2021 the city received a limited number of cases of bottle and gallons of water to provide to families impacted with no water. This solution was not as effective as needed because of the overwhelming need of water alternatives while we waited for our supply to return. Since then we have been made aware of a permanent solution needs to be provided to our community.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Once the generators are installed at the wells the Water Department has Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems. These types of computer systems are used to gather and quickly analyze real-time data. They create trends, data reports, and alarm management tools. Users such as the water superintend and employee will be able to easily access the software and identify possible outages in electricity once they have received the alert via text from the SCADA system. This will insure that respond time is maintained at the most effective level so that the electric supply is uninterrupted.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

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