UPDATE: The DEQ lifted the boil order at 10:30 a.m. on May 22.
With a Hominy boil order in place due to E. coli detected in the water supply, the Osage Nation donated $110,115 to the city for municipal water treatment and infrastructure upgrade costs.
The boil order took effect on May 5 and continued through May 21 pending satisfactory testing results by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ issued the boil order after E. coli was discovered and officials have since taken several water samples for lab processing to determine whether the water is safe for consumption, according to the city’s social media updates.
On May 16, the Eighth ON Congress met for an emergency special session to take up storm-related legislation related to the May 6 tornadic storm that devastated Barnsdall and also took up the donation appropriation for Hominy’s water issue. After consideration by the Congressional Appropriations Committee, the Congress passed bill ONCA 24-57 (sponsored by Congressman Eli Potts with co-sponsoring by Congressmen John Maker and Joe Tillman) for the $110,115 donation.
“This bill specifically comes out of the need for clean water,” Potts told the committee. He followed up with Hominy city officials a few days prior and with the ongoing boil order, conversations with the city started on what type of aid the Nation could contribute. “It is a waiting game at this point for the water to clear up and we’re very well aware of that.”
Potts said he learned the Hominy city water plant infrastructure is outdated, operates with a computer system that is 20-plus years old and is slow to return to normal operations following power outages. “From that discussion we got into a SCADA system, that is the overall operating system, new computers, a new set-up that would control the water treatment facility there in Hominy,” Potts said, adding he requested cost estimates on new equipment needs, which led to the $110,115 amount in ONCA 24-57.
Hominy Interim City Manager, Diana Garrett, told the committee: “We are honored and a bit humbled to be included in your discussions today with all the need that Barnsdall has, so I appreciate the Congressman reaching out to us. The SCADA system, in the most simplistic terms, is the brain of a water plant. It operates the functions of everything from chemical flow to moving the water through.”
Regarding the current city water equipment, Garrett said “at this point, the system is so old that during the (severe) storms when the power went out, it knocked everything offline, when we finally got the power back up 24 hours later, it took our antiquated system another 5-6 hours to boot back up and finally get the water plant moving and when a water plant is shut down for that length of time, it sets us back quite a bit. Long term – we know we need to completely upgrade this water plant, but because of the situation, we’re looking at the things that we need most right now and it’s the SCADA system.”
The bill was originally filed at a lower amount at $92,079, but the committee voted to increase the bill amount to $110,115 during the committee discussion after Potts made the motion. “The SCADA system, which right now is the most important part, because it does push the chlorine disinfectant, and while we’re still waiting for a final result from DEQ, we do know that with our antiquated system, we’ve struggled to keep the proper balance with disinfecting chlorine through the system and I can’t really speculate on why this happened, but it may be likely that is part of it,” Garrett said.
Garrett said a complete overhaul of the city water plant will cost millions of dollars “and that most definitely will be a phased-in project to our minds right now.” She added the city has applied for grant funding, but had yet to hear if the city’s application was approved to go toward disinfecting upgrades.
At the close of the special session, the Congress voted 12-0 to approve ONCA 24-57 and Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear signed the bill to take effect. The next day, Maker and Tillman presented a check for $110,115 to Hominy city officials.
In a City of Hominy May 17 social media post, the city wrote: “’ This new (SCADA) system is a first step to bringing our 40-year-old water plant into modern times,’ said Mayor Donnie Reed. Again, our sincere thanks to the Osage Nation Congress! We look forward to our continued collaborations in bringing the best services we can to all the residents of Hominy!”
