Oklahoma lawmaker secures funding to fix major water issue in Arcadia

The state legislature has provided $2 million in funding to allow an Arcadia community to have access to clean water.

Problem at hand:

Residents at the new development off Hiwassee and Waterloo began noticing within a year of moving into their homes that some of their water supply was contaminated with a corrosive saline. This was causing severe corrosion in the pipes of the homes and making it unsafe to drink the water.

Residents tried to go through multiple avenues to get the problem fixed, but after multiple failed endeavors, they reached out to state lawmakers.

Who is impacted?

“There's two additions there in Southeast Logan County that are affected by this. I've been told as many as 50 or 60 homes and families potentially are going to use this funding to get water to their homes and have good safe water,” said Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston. 

The communities are near Arcadia, off of Hiwassee and Waterloo.

Homeowner Reaction:

“I know the stress that it's put on them. What a lot of the people have done out here is they've put their life savings into building their retirement home. Once they get that home built and they move into it they retire thinking this is their forever place, and now their water has the potential of being contaminated with corrosive saline. There's nowhere for them to turn. It's the time of your life when you really want to relax and you've spent your life savings on your home. It's backed a lot of people into a corner out here,” said David Strozdas, a resident in the community.

While Strozdas didn’t have issues with the water in his home, he serves on the HOA board and saw the direct impact from the water issues at his neighbors' homes.

“First question on everybody's mind: is my house next? How far has the saltwater plume gone and what am I gonna have to do to fix the problem on my property? It was news to everybody all at the same time out here,” said Strozdas.

Major impact on 50-60 families:

“Most of the homes out here have been built in the last 36 months; this is a relatively new community. The folks that were impacted found out within the last 24 months it came on pretty quickly,” said Strozdas.

“Fresh water is life. It doesn't matter whether you're an animal or a plant or an insect, you've got to have fresh water. That impacts everybody's living conditions, and then it also impacts the plumbing in every house if it gets into your water well. You can't bathe in it, you can't drink it, obviously you can't do laundry, you can't water your plants, your landscaping or anything with it. It will kill everything you got,” said Strozdas.

Lawmaker Response:

“I had constituents from Southeast Logan County call me and tell me they had contaminated water. These are families that have real issues and that I need to figure out how to get them water,” said Sen. Grant Green.

“These homes were just a couple years old, and their appliances were getting ate up and they were having to replace them. I made it my priority in the first half of the 60th to make sure people have that security of good water. Unless you've been in their shoes and know what it's like to turn on that tap and not really feel like that was safe; I just don't know how they dealt with it every day,” said Sen. Green.

“At the end of the day, it's just about taking care of families and giving them the security of knowing that they have water. That's who I am; I wanna figure out how we can fix things and not just keep pushing chains uphill,” said Sen. Green.

Legislative Solution:

“This state is fortunate to have the Oklahoma Water Resource Board that can try and help with projects like this. We started going down that road of getting funding to get the rural water district enough money to reach out to these homes,” said Sen. Green.

Senator Green worked closely with Senate leaders to get the funding secured in the state budget to get this problem fixed. The final agreement included an additional $2 million to extend the rural water line to those properties.

“What this is gonna entail, they're gonna have to extend the rural waterline 3-3.5 miles and then they'll have to branch off into these divisions. The bid process has started, the engineering has started and I'm assuming within a year these folks will have water. The money is now with rural water, and this is something they do every day. I’m glad I was persistent and glad that I made it a priority to try to resolve the issue,” said Sen. Green.

“It's been quite involved. The rural water district will run a new water line out to our residential area, just like in the city you'll have a water line on the easement; it will come past the house and they'll put a water meter in. Then it's each homeowner's responsibility to get a water line run from the meter to the house then you'll disconnect from the water well and get your fresh water from the rural water district and not from your own well. It will save everybody's property values and maybe increase them a little bit. But, the main thing is peace of mind; everybody can go to bed at night and not worry about what their shower is gonna be like in the morning. I mean you can't put a price on it really,” said Strozdas.

Lasting impact:

“The fact that we're getting rural water out here that is a blessing beyond description. That's gonna save everybody,” said Strozdas.

“That's the way the system is supposed to work. I can’t thank the legislator enough for his time and attention to what's going on out here. It was up in the air for so long and nobody knew what was going to happen. It really is beyond words; he revitalized the neighborhood,” said Strozdas.