[This is the second in a series on local and global water issues. You can read part one here.]

by Asia Scudder

In order to gain a better perspective of our local water issues I spoke to Ken Komiske, Utilities Director for the City of Norman and Charles Wesner, Chair of the Sierra Club Oklahoma Chapter.

A: What are the challenges Norman faces regarding water resource management?

K: The proper use of water as a resource is always a challenge. This means looking at the big picture, which would include water conservation, water pricing, water sources (both existing and new) and water quality.

A: What successes have you seen in the past 10 years as Norman has met some of these challenges?

K: One of the accomplishments in Norman has been with water conservation.

This accomplishment has been due to several fronts. First, Norman’s rate structure of an inverted water rate (means you pay more per 1000 gallons as you use more) has been successful in reducing excessive water use. In addition public education (make every drop count campaign) as well as newspaper articles, etc. has allowed customers to be more aware of water use. And the Odd/Even campaign for irrigation (residential customers with odd addresses water on odd calendar days, customers with even address water on even calendar days) has done a lot to reduce the summer time peaking of water use.

Another large challenge was the change in EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) rules. The arsenic rule reduced the allowable level of arsenic from 50 ppb (parts per billion) to 10ppb. This eliminated about 15 of our existing water wells. Even though well water makes up only about 25 percent of the total water production, this cost our customers millions of dollars just to replace these water wells.

A: In what ways, more specifically, is the city of Norman reusing wastewater treatment plant effluent?

K: Currently the City of Norman supplies wastewater treated effluent for the OU golf course. Just recently, we installed effluent reuse pumps at the WWTP (Wastewater Treatment Plant) to use treated effluent for all process water; i.e. pump seals, foam suppression, weir washing, grit cleaning, etc. This has been in place for only a couple of months and is saving about seven million gallons per month of potable water.

We would like to be able to use treated effluent for more applications, but the State regulations make this a very difficult challenge.

A:  As a city-wide effort (i.e. rather than individual responsibility) are there attempts to explore sustainable approaches for water resource management issues related to daily water use?

K: Sure, we continue to look at the issues of water reuse, water conservation and water rates, and work to educate our customers and regulators.

A:  Ok, what is the Garber-Wellington aquifer? And how much water is drawn from that versus from Lake Thunderbird . Is the aquifer at risk for depletion in the near future?

K:  The Garber-Wellington aquifer is a large aquifer in central Oklahoma . Several communities use water from this aquifer. Norman gets about 25% of the total water production from this aquifer. At this point in time, we do not see a depletion in the water levels in our wells. An engineering report suggests that we can safely get more water from the aquifer. So, for the short term water solution (next five to ten years), we are drilling more wells in the aquifer. Eventually, we will have to import water from out of our region to supply not just Norman , but the central Oklahoma region.

A: Charles, do you have any other concerns that you would like to address?

W: I think Ken Komiske has done a good job in summarizing the current state of Norman’s water supply and the conservation measures that the City has taken .  His    statement relating to the long-term water plan that “eventually we will have to import    water from outside the region” is what we all need to be paying attention to.

A: Can you tell me more about what your concerns are about that?

W:  The Norman City Council is now considering becoming a part of the Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority (COWRA), which is a scheme to pump water from Southeast Oklahoma to Oklahoma City and surrounding participating communities. The cost of the least expensive alternative is $2.3 billion. Norman’s share would be $360.3 million.  This does not include the debt service on bonds and of course would not include the large annual maintenance and energy costs of pumping that water over one hundred miles uphill.  That has caused some cities to back out already.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of joining this pipeline consortium is the requirement that Norman must rescind our charter provision that all utility rate increases must be voted on by the citizens. This amendment was adopted by initiative petition over thirty years ago. It was vigorously opposed by some in the business community and survived their legal challenge in the State Supreme Court.  Despite incessant whining and grousing by the Norman Chamber of Commerce and the growth and development interests, this has not stopped or even slowed growth as they complain. The citizens have only once turned down a rate increase. What it did accomplish was to force the City to become more efficient, adopt policies that encouraged conservation, discouraged wasteful misuse and adopt rates that were more equitable. In the case of the sewer services, it has forced growth to at least begin to pay for itself. This would never have happened without that charter amendment.   It has been a powerfully progressive tool.  It is the only leverage citizens have had that can prevent developers from shifting the cost of growth on to the public. Of course they don’t want us to have that kind of power. Now the opportunity to finally abolish it has appeared –  the Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority.

The long-range water plan is based on a population that is double Norman’s present population and it does not anticipate any future conservation practice or reuse of wastewater. Norman has adequate water to serve the current population and provide for reasonable growth. There are a number of hard questions we need to ask ourselves before being locked into a huge financial commitment and throwing away our power to direct our future – the right to vote on utility rate increases. For starters: how then are we going to manage growth and who is going to pay for it?

The issue of who is responsible for caring for the safety and availability of our water supply will be the focus of my next article.   Does this responsibility fall on the citizen, local, state or federal government or on private business?  These are vital concerns that all of us need to be educated about as this changing paradigm of water resource management evolves.

Asia Scudder is the owner of Zahori Landscapes.