Lawton Water Authority receives $30,000,000 wastewater system loan from OWRB

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Lawton Water Authority (Authority) received approval for a $30,000,000 loan Tuesday from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to improve the Authority’s wastewater infrastructure. Construction of upgrades and improvements to the wastewater system will be financed by the Oklahoma Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF).

The Authority will be using these proceeds to perform an overall major replacement of sewer lines, manholes, and valves throughout the wastewater system. This will take place in phases for the next several years targeting the high-maintenance lines. This first phase will replace 125 miles of line and manholes. The current system is experiencing sanitary sewer overflows and backups causing frequent disruptions in the system leading to mounting repair costs. The line replacement will help eliminate sanitary sewer overflows while continuing to protect the local watershed from future degradation.

Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the Authority’s customers will save an estimated $7,172,000 over the life of the 30-year loan compared to traditional financing. The CWSRF loan will be secured with a lien on the revenues of the Authority’s water, sewer, and sanitation systems.

The Authority’s Director of Public Utilities, Rusty Whisenhunt, stated, “Thank you for the opportunity to come to the Board. This is the first phase of three and the next step in Lawton’s sewer rehabilitation program.”

The CWSRF program is administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The CWSRF program has provided approximately $2.5 billion in water quality 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 $6.8 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma.

“We are grateful to State Legislators from the Lawton area for their continued support of our financial assistance programs,” said Julie Cunningham, Executive Director of the OWRB.

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