Water Reuse System to be installed, online by June 2023
The City of Bartlesville has been nominated for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s “Water for 60 Excellence Award” for its ongoing efforts to implement the water reuse system — a system that will help extend water resources for the area decades into the future, Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said last week.
The nomination was submitted by former Bartlesville mayor/city councilor Tom Gorman, who has represented Ward 3 on the City’s Water Resources Committee since its inception in 2003. The committee was formed soon after severe drought conditions at Hulah Lake made clear the community’s need for long-term water planning.
“The nomination for this prestigious award is in recognition of the work that has been done to bring the Water Reuse System online for the City of Bartlesville,” Lauritsen said. “While this project has had a lot of moving parts and has required participation from several arms of the City including the City Council and City management, the Water Resources Committee has also been instrumental in helping to steer us in the right direction to ensure that area water needs are met in the long-term. This system will certainly help us do that.”
The water reuse project essentially began when the Oklahoma Legislature enacted the ‘Water for 60’ law in 2012, the goal of which is to consume no more fresh water in the year 2060 than was consumed statewide in the year 2012 while continuing to grow the population and economy of Oklahoma.
“Soon after the law was enacted, we began looking into whether or not it would be feasible for our community,” Lauritsen said. “It became clear pretty quickly that it would very likely be an excellent resource for the City of Bartlesville.”
Lauritsen said the project has been in the planning and development stages for several years, first with feasibility studies and grant application submissions and more recently with rights-of-way obtainment and infrastructure design.
“It has taken a while to get to this point, but we are moving forward with the first phase of construction on the project, which involves the renovation of the Caney River Pump Station, and we should be looking to begin installing pipeline later this calendar year or early next year,” he said.
The reuse system involves the construction/installation of infrastructure that will consist of a pump station at the wastewater treatment plant and an underground pipeline transporting the water to the Caney River just south of the County Road West 1500 bridge. This will allow the City to utilize treated wastewater to augment the yield of the Caney River during periods of drought, which serves as one of the City’s main water sources.
“We will pump treated wastewater upstream of the Caney River and allow it to blend with existing river water, then send it to the water treatment plant for further treatment and, from there, to our water customers,” Lauritsen said.
For Bartlesville and the surrounding communities that rely on the City’s water resources, the water reuse project means expanding the area’s potable water supply decades into the future.
“The reuse system will extend the resources of Hulah Lake, one of the City’s primary water sources, by approximately 25 years and provide approximately 35-70 percent of current water supply needs,” Lauritsen said. “In addition, as the city continues to grow and increase in water consumption, wastewater generation and treatment will also grow and mirror water consumption. This means the project will continue to provide raw water and be a critical component of the City’s water supply system indefinitely.”
The system is expected to cost around $8.2 million, which will be funded partially through grant funding but primarily with Water Capital Investment Fees. Completion of the project is expected by June 2023.
For more information, see City Beat April 24, 2019.