A proposed hydroelectric project along the Kiamichi River in southeast Oklahoma’s Pushmataha County pushed along quietly until residents finally learned of the company’s plans filed with the federal regulators.
Mike Ray of the Southwest Ledger has written extensively about the growing opposition and what the developer proposed. For the next several days, we will publish some of his many stories.
By Mike W. Ray
Southwest Ledger
ALBION – The Kiamichi River in southeast Oklahoma “supplies multiple public water systems,” noted Megan McBride of Calera, a member of the Choctaw Nation.
The river is “the main source of drinking water for Clayton and Antlers and for several rural water districts,” the Pushmataha County Board of Commissioners noted in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Pushmataha County Rural Water District #2 is among them. That district opposes construction of a1,200-megawatt power plant south of Talihina along the Kiamichi River for multiple reasons spelled out in a letter to FERC.
The Albion-based district has approximately 470 customers in three counties: Pushmataha, Latimer and LeFlore, Office Manager Billie Briggs of Nashoba told the Southwest Ledger. Those customers receive potable water through approximately 78 miles of water lines, according to RWD#2 Field Manager Alan Kight Jr.
If the hydroelectric power plant were built it would “depreciate the value of our water department” from the loss of perhaps “25% of our district’s meters,” Briggs and Kight said.
The district’s expenses would not decrease if those customers were lost, they said. Instead, the district’s remaining customers would be responsible for those expenses, “forcing us to increase rates to all the rest of our customers.”
Additionally, in March RWD#2 received a $1,640,000 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Losing scores of customers “could put us in a bind to keep with our financial obligations,” Kight and Briggs noted.
The district has earmarked the loan proceeds for rehabilitation of a booster pump station, replacement of aging pumps, acquisition of a backup generator, and installation of a chloramine disinfection system
The new equipment is needed to ensure adequate disinfection of water at the extreme limits of the district’s lines, as required by the DEQ. “One of our lines goes 20 miles in one direction,” Ms. Briggs said
The improvements are projected to be completed in November, if all goes according to plan, she said.
Almost half of the loan, $800,000, will be “forgiven” after the project is finished. Nevertheless, the district will still owe about $840,000 on the loan.
Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that Pushmataha County RWD#2 customers will save an estimated $1,417,700 over the 20-year life of the low-interest loan (3.2%) compared to traditional financing.
Briggs said the water district is currently anticipating one new residential subdivision that will need 23 water meters.
Customers have moved into the district’s service area not only from Dallas but also from Nevada and California, because of soaring prices, overpopulation, and a desire for a simpler life, Briggs said. “One family came from Pennsylvania to retire here,” she said.
And the mayor of Albion moved there from Oregon. “She said she visited her grandmother when she was younger and fell in love with the area,” Briggs said.
The district buys treated water from the City of Talihina.
“As growth continues in southeast Oklahoma, if for any reason our water source reaches capacity we would not have the [Kiamichi] river to use as a secondary water source to supply our customers,” Kight wrote in the July 17 letter to FERC.
An agreement reached among Oklahoma City, the State of Oklahoma, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw nations in 2016 authorized OKC to siphon 115,000 acre-feet of water (almost 37.5 billion gallons per year) from the Kiamichi River. The hydropower project envisioned by the Southeast Oklahoma Power Corporation would withdraw even more water from the river: 118,184 acre-feet, 38.5 billion gallons per year.
Construction of the hydroelectric plant “could increase impurity levels and sediment levels” that would create turbidity in the river, “making water use for locals nearly impossible and unsafe,” RWD#2 asserted in its letter to FERC.
-30-