The City Council heard a presentation on the Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) Pilot Study during a meeting held Monday at City Hall.
The study is part of the wastewater treatment plant expansion and will redirect treated waste water from the Chickasaw Waste Water Treatment Plant several miles upstream into the Caney River to be recaptured, retreated and distributed through the City’s water system during times of extreme drought.
“This system is still in the regulatory process and is not currently being utilized,” said Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen. “Once approved and ready to implement, it will only be used if we reach Stage 4 drought conditions, which occurs when our water supply drops below 50 percent of overall water available.”
The system will be capable of providing 4.1 million gallons of water per day, which is close to average use for Bartlesville, particularly when utilizing other conservation methods.
The pilot study for the project, required by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, was conducted earlier this year, and the results were submitted to the ODEQ in October.
“Essentially, the pilot study demonstrated that the proposed treatment for reuse works and that the optimized process for it met all State and Federal standards,” said. “We have submitted those results to the ODEQ and will now wait for a response from them before moving the project forward. We anticipate that will be sometime in the coming months.”
Lauritsen said in the meantime, City staff and consultant team Tetra Tech will begin preparing an Engineering Report for the City Council to consider for approval.
“That will likely go to council sometime after the first of the year,” he said.
The IPR system is connected to an expansion of the the Chickasaw Waste Water Treatment Plant. The plant was originally built in 1939 with major improvements made in 1983 and 1992, and is under capacity and under ODEQ Consent Order to achieve compliance. The expansion, expected to cost upwards of $75 million, will increase the capacity of the plant from 7 million gallons per day to 8.2 million gallons per day. Construction is expected to start in 2026 with completion anticipated in 2028.