Hominy faces long road ahead in replacing failing water infrastructure

Written By: Collyn Combs

(OSAGE RESERVATION) Water issues persist for the city of Hominy, despite the boil order being lifted on June 13.

Read this story on Osage News here. 

According to a statement by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, Hominy had maintained combined filter effluent turbidity values (the measure of cloudiness in the water after filtration) and the boil order was lifted on June 13. After the DEQ took 10 water samples, all were found absent for total coliform (bacteria) and E. coli.

Hominy Mayor Donnie Reed shared an update via Facebook Live to address some of the concerns after a Fox 23 report said a city of Hominy employee said the Osage Nation Senior Housing construction was to blame for the brown water citizens are currently experiencing.

“Yesterday, somebody told a reporter that the Osage Nation had been the ones that drilled into our water lines and was causing all these issues,” Reed said. “That is not true whatsoever. I don’t know where that came from or who said it, but it’s not true.”

Reed went on to say the Osage Nation has helped the city with the water crisis.

“The Osage Nation is the only people that have reached out to the city of Hominy to help us with our water issues and our water problems,” he said. “They helped us update our plant. They’ve done a lot for the city, and the last thing I want to do is see them get blamed for anything.”

He said construction at the Hominy Senior Housing has not hit any water lines in town. The housing division is located at the end of the water line.

“Our water infrastructure is our biggest problem right now,” he said. “We are fighting a 120-year-old water system, that is a nonstop battle.”

The spillway at Hominy City Lake washed out in May due to heavy rain and flooding. A piece of concrete broke the main water line and drained the water towers. The city received a grant two years ago to help fix the water issues, and the city has been working hard to get the issues fixed, but it takes time.

“We got a grant for $1 million to replace our spillway,” Reed said. “We have no control over that money. We can’t rush it, we can’t make them do anything. The engineers and the OWRB (Oklahoma Water Resources Board) go back and forth on the engineering, and it has taken them two years to get that done.”

The city hired a construction company to fix the spillway, and will sign the paperwork on July 2. Now the project can start as soon as possible. The city has been working with OWRB on some of the other issues Hominy has been dealing with.

State Sen. Bill Coleman, R-Ponca City, has also reached out to the city about what he can do for Hominy after he received an email from residents.

Brown water

Residents have reported brown water throughout different parts of town, and Reed addressed these issues.

“I’ve seen a lot of complaining on Facebook,” he said. “I get it. I understand it. My water’s brown.”

He explained the cause behind the brown water.

“What’s causing that is when that water line got taken out, we replaced over 1,000 feet of that line,” Reed said. “When we were doing that, the tower on the hill went dry. Which means every water line in town lost pressure. When you lose that pressure off of a 120-year-old water line, it shrinks down.”

The city slowly filled up the water towers, but that caused more leaks and repairs to be made.

“We did it as slow as we could, but no matter what, then you’re putting pressure back on those lines,” Reed said. “What that’s done is we’ve blown a lot of water lines all over town.”

Because of where the water line is located, sediment and other particles are getting picked up from the lake bed.

“Right now, we’re sucking mud off the bottom of the lake,” Reed said. “That [water line] pulls directly off the bottom of the lake, and goes into the one clarifier (a tank designed to separate solids from the water through sedimentation) that we have right now.”

Interim City Manager Crala Marlin has been in her position for only two weeks and also talked about what’s going on with the water in town.

“One of the challenges we’ve been facing for a year and a half is we only have one clarifier at the water plant,” she said. “It’s been a process trying to get the second clarifier fixed. But because we only have one clarifier that we’ve had to lower the flow of the water to be able to clean it and be able to produce it back up to the hill where our tank is. Because of that, we’re producing water at a lower speed than normal.”

Brown water isn’t widespread around town, but in some areas where there are leaks nearby.

“It’s been in different areas throughout town,” Marlin said. “But also, we’ve been having water leaks, and when the guys go in there to repair that leak, that causes dirt and things to get into the lines. That’s where some of it’s coming from. We have a flushing schedule and the guys have been going and flushing hydrants to be able to clear those lines and prevent that.”

Clean water is going to cost money.

“The water, it’s all treated,” said Hominy City Council member Chris Maker. “It’s good to go; DEQ approved everything. All tests have been done as far as the groundwater and some of the houses. But a lot of the problem with the brown water is the water infrastructure.”

The city is looking for grants to replace some of the infrastructure, but replacing all the infrastructure in town will be costly.

“Our mayor, Don Reed, had a guy come and look at it that just gave him a ballpark figure that it’s going to be between, I think he said $18 to $20 million to fix the water infrastructure,” Maker said. “And that’s a guesstimate; that’s without measuring or anything to know exactly what all is going to take place. We’re trying to look into grants and stuff, but it’ll probably be a deal where we have to do, I don’t know, we talked about maybe doing one award at a time to split the cost up.”

The city has brought in more experts with certifications to help with the city’s water crisis.

“We hired Paul Cheek, who has been a water operator,” Marlin said. “He helps Cleveland. He’s come in and he’s helped us tremendously. He is teaching our guys a lot of things that we didn’t know or better ways to do things. That’s made huge improvements in our water system and within the water department.”

Marlin said some problems haven’t been fixed over the years, and it’s taken its toll on the city.

“It’s been years and years of neglect, and years and years of people not wanting to spend the money to fix things,” she said. “And now it’s just crashing at one time. It’s going to take time for us to be able to have the funds and the time to repair the things that need to be repaired.”

The city has been facing challenges lately, as the city manager who was hired in May was terminated. The city is still trying to work as best as it can to get the problems solved for citizens.

“Change takes time,” Marlin said. “There’s been a lot of turnover within our city, and we are working to make things. I would say right now as a city as a whole, our employees work together better than they’ve ever worked together before and so it’s taken that time and it’s taking all of us to work to be able to make the change and it’s going to take time for them to see that change.”