Altus Municipal Authority receives $20,400,000 water system funding from OWRB

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Altus Municipal Authority (Authority) received approval for $20,400,000 in funding Tuesday from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to improve the Authority’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 $1,000,000 of the loan will be in the form of loan forgiveness.

The Authority will utilize the proceeds to replace approximately 100,000 linear feet of waterline throughout the city. These improvements focus on water conservation and efficiency and will lead to increased water supply reliability; helping to meet the State of Oklahoma’s Water for 2060 goals.

Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the Authority’s customers will save an estimated $8,577,000 over the life of the 30-year loan compared to traditional financing.  The DWSRF loan will be secured with a lien on the revenues of the Authority’s water and sewer systems.  Altus’ Finance Director, Jan Neufeld, shared, “Thank you for the opportunity to present our project for replacement of water lines. We have been working on this for a while and are happy to be here.”

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 $7.3 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 State Senator Brent Howard and Representative Gerrid Kendrix 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