The Enid Municipal Authority received approval this week for $205,000,000 in funding from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, through its contract with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, to improve the Authority’s water infrastructure.
The loan approval is considered historic to OWRB as the broadest scope of project in geographic size and as the single largest loan in history of the Board.
The Authority will use the funds of this loan in combination with three previously approved OWRB loans to fund the city’s “Kaw Lake Water Supply Project.” This project will provide raw water from Kaw Lake to Enid’s new 10.5 million gallon a day water treatment plant via a raw water intake structure constructed at Kaw Lake, a booster pump station, and approximately seventy miles of transmission line.
Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division calculated that the Authority’s customers will save an estimated $9,320,000 over the life of the 30-year loan compared to traditional financing. The DWSRF loan will be secured with a lien on the revenues of the Authority’s water, sewer, and sanitation systems and a two cent sales tax.
Enid’s City Manager, Jerald Gilbert, said, “This was a long term project collaboration of many people. It started in about 2015 with an initial study and is needed for the long term future of our city.”
Construction of upgrades and improvements to the water system will be financed by the Oklahoma Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
The DWSRF program is administered by OWRB and DEQ with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The DWSRF program has provided approximately $1.5 billion in drinking water loans to provide communities the resources necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure that protects our valuable water resources statewide.
Since 1983, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has approved over $4.8 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma.
Source: OWRB