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Chemical Controversy Festering As Norman, Midwest City Disagree Over Water Plan

Kevin Anders, standing at the lectern, who represents Midwest City on the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District board, engaged in an exchange with council members Tuesday about whether he would support the water reuse plan.
Sarah Terry-Cobo
/
The Journal Record
Kevin Anders, standing at the lectern, who represents Midwest City on the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District board, engaged in an exchange with council members Tuesday about whether he would support the water reuse plan.

Tuesday night the city council in Midwest City approved a non-binding resolution rejecting a water proposal that would put treated wastewater back in Lake Thunderbird.

The large reservoir about 10 miles east of Norman is shared by the two communities, as well as Del City. All three draw raw water from the lake, but two city officials disagree over how and where to treat the wastewater in the supply chain.

“[Environmental Services Director] Bill Janacek from Midwest City says there's a risk of lingering chemicals and pharmaceuticals in the water, and that outweighs any benefits of fighting the drought or keeping the lake level high. He says that treatment can't get rid of all traces of chemicals, and so they shouldn't be put in the water supply,” says The Journal Record’s managing editor Adam Brooks. “Now Norman's utility director Ken Komiske says traces of these chemicals may be evident, but it would be monitored. And he said the study that Janacek cites that says things are dangerous are from areas that have much higher pollution.”

But neither Janacek nor Komiske actually have the final say. Since Lake Thunderbird provides raw water to three communities, it’s actually overseen by the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District. COMCD general manager Randy Worden told The Journal Record’s Sarah Terry-Cobo chemicals are already in the lake due to fertilizer runoff, and the district wants to increase the water level even with four years of drought, and growing demand for the resource in Norman.

But Midwest City council members weren’t very receptive during Tuesday’s meeting.

Engineering firm Garver planned to present the firm’s study on Lake Thunderbird’s current polluted state, plans to clean up wastewater before it leaves Norman’s treatment plant, and how much that treated water could be cleaned up before it was pumped into the reservoir. But Ward 4 Councilman Jim Ray was interested in one thing, he said, as he interrupted Garver Vice President Michael Graves. “Do you have the technology to completely remove all these chemicals of emerging concern?” Ray said. “Can you get to that? Because we don’t really care about anything else.” Several other council members were concerned about chemicals that most wastewater treatment plants aren’t designed to remove: hormone-altering substances from pharmaceuticals, personal care products and plastics. There aren’t any federal regulations on removing those chemicals from treated wastewater.

The practice isn’t anything new, though. StateImpact Oklahoma’s Logan Layden reported last spring Oklahoma Water Resources Board Executive Director J.D. Strong told the audience during a public meeting in Yukon that they need to get over the “ick factor” of drinking treated wastewater, because they probably already are.

“One of the things I tell people when we’re having discussions in the Oklahoma City metro area, and people want to talk about, ‘that’s gross’, or ‘I’m not drinking somebody’s wastewater’, usually I tell them, ‘you are drinking somebody’s wastewater,” Strong told the audience. “You’re drinking El Reno’s wastewater right now, because they discharge their wastewater into the North Canadian and it runs right down here into Overholser.”

But since the resolution is non-binding, and neither Midwest City nor Norman can tell the other what to do, Brooks said it could be weeks before there’s any movement on the issue.

“The Conservancy District has a board meeting on May 7,” Brooks said. “We're not clear if they'll take action then, or what that would be, but that is the first time they could address it.”

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The Business Intelligence Report is a collaborative news project between KGOU and The Journal Record.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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