Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust Receives $2,500,000 Water System Funding from the OWRB

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust (Authority) received approval for $2,500,000 in funding with $1,250,000 in principal forgiveness 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).

The Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust will use the funding to advance its lead service inventory verification program. Through hydro excavation and potholing on both public and private sides of the meter, the project aims to investigate and verify 5,000 remaining unknown service lines in the distribution system. This initiative will enhance water quality and public health for residents and businesses.

Lori Johnson, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the Authority’s customers will save an estimated $2,022,000 compared to traditional financing. The DWSRF loan will be secured with a lien on their water, sewer, and sanitation revenues.

Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust’s officials attending the OWRB’s monthly meeting in support of the loan application included Vaness Aguilar, business manager and Chris Browing, utilities director. “Thank you so much for considering this loan. Pursuant to the EPA rules related to lead service line replacement, we have been working on the inventory for quite some time. The OWRB previously funded a field verification program for us in phase one of this project, and now we are in phase two,” said Mr. Browing. “In phase two, with this funding, we will verify another 5,000 lines. We truly appreciate your consideration of this important program, which will help us identify the locations of lead service lines so that we can replace them going forward.”

Julie Cunningham, Executive Director of the OWRB, and Rob Singletary, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ), express their sincere appreciation to State Legislators from the Oklahoma City metro area for their continued support of the DWSRF program.

The DWSRF program is administered by the OWRB and the ODEQ with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The DWSRF program has provided approximately $2.4 billion in drinking water loans to provide communities with 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 $7.7 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma.