Cherokee County Rural Water District No. 11 receives $3,427,150 water system funding from OWRB

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Cherokee County Rural Water District No. 11 (District) received approval for $3,427,150 in funding Tuesday from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to improve the District’s water infrastructure.  Construction of upgrades and improvements to the water system will be financed by the Oklahoma Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), where $864,241 will be in the form of loan forgiveness, along with $2,000,000 provided through a Cherokee Nation grant. 

The District will utilize these proceeds for the construction of two (2) adsorption clarifier package units with an individual capacity of 280 gallons per minute (gpm), one (1) 500-gpm raw water pump, one (1) 550-gpm finished water pump, one (1) chemical feed building, one (1) laboratory control building, the rehabilitation of two (2) existing adsorption clarifier package units, electrical work, and instrumentation. These improvements will allow the District to continue meeting the water needs of its customers. 

Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the District’s customers will save an estimated $2,201,641 over the life of the 25-year loan compared to traditional financing. The DWSRF loan will be secured with a lien on the revenues of the District’s water system and a mortgage. Representing the District was Manager, Joshua Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard, stated, “We thank the Board for considering this request. This will be needed for the future, as we grow.” 

The DWSRF program is administered by the OWRB and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The DWSRF program has provided approximately $2.2 billion in drinking water loans to provide communities the resources necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure that protects our valuable water resources statewide.

Since 1983, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has approved over $7.1 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma. 

Julie Cunningham, Executive Director of the OWRB, and Scott Thompson, Executive Director of the ODEQ, express their sincere appreciation to Oklahoma Legislators within Cherokee County for their support of the DWSRF program. 

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Contacts: 
Joe Freeman 
Oklahoma Water Resources Board 
(405) 530-8800 
Joe.Freeman@owrb.ok.gov

Candy Thompson 
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality 
(405) 702-8100 
Candy.Thompson@deq.ok.gov