By Curtis D. Tucker, Enid Buzz | Friday, August 19, 2016
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ENID, Okla. - Enid voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, August 23 to vote on a 3/4 cent sales tax increase and a 1/4 cent sales tax continuation to fund the Kaw Lake Water Pipeline Project. I sat down with former Enid Mayor, Ernie Currier, to ask many of the questions Enid residents are having concerns over.
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Please be as informed as possible on this very important issue for our city. You'll find details of the plan, a video and tax information on our Kaw Lake Water Supply Page. Below you will find the questions and answers I posed to Ernie Currier, Chairman of Yes Enid Water. This group supports the Kaw Pipeline Project so these answers are for a Yes vote.
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1. Who is behind Yes Enid Water?
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Local citizens and small family business owners have joined together and donated to this group to insure that Enid has a water supply well into the future. The City of Enid and big industry are not funding this group. Ernie Currier is the Chairman.
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2. Why is there a concern for our water supply now?
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The five water well fields (aquifers) west of town have been on the decline since 2000 at the rate of around a foot a year. All five aquifers are declining at about the same rate. They started declining long before the last drought and even though our region went through a very wet period during that time, the aquifer water levels did not rise.
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3. Where is the water going?
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The City of Enid uses around 12 million gallons of water a day on average. Other cities near the aquifers draw from the supply also. An increase in farmers growing crops that require large amounts of water, like corn, are also taking from the water fields. The drought did not have a huge effect on the water level but the wells did have a hard time pumping up to 18 million gallons a day during the hottest part of summer.
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4. Why not drill more wells or buy more water rights from other aquifers?
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Drilling more wells only increases the rate at which the limited water supply is taken out of the ground. It is not a long term answer. Most farmers no longer will give up their water rights and the government is making it much tougher to pull water from new fields due to increased regulations. A surface water source would benefit Enid more.
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5. I've heard the wells are not being maintained and the pipeline leaks, wasting gallons of water.
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There have been several wells over time collapse and fill with sand. These wells are no longer usable and have been abandoned. Each time one collapses a new well is drilled. Five new wells are currently being brought online.
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The pipeline does spring a leak from time to time but the City of Enid has crews that monitor the entire well system and they quickly fix any repairs that are needed.
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6. Isn't most of the water just going to the Koch plant?
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The Koch plant does currently use a large portion of our water supply. They use up to 5.5 million gallons a day. But they are currently spending $85 million of their own money to build a facility to use our greywater. The amounts will fluctuate, but that will reduce their potable water usage to around 1.5 - 2.5 million gallons a day.
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Koch pays the same industrial water rate as every other business in town in case you were wondering. They will be getting the greywater for free to use in their new system and the supply of greywater will fluctuate depending on the supply from the City.
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7. What can we do about our aquifers losing so much water supply?
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The reason the City began their water supply study five years ago was to address this question. They looked at three major sources of new water for Enid. One was drilling more wells which does not address the long term problem of declining water levels, the second was building a lake nearby and the third was building a pipeline from Kaw to Enid.
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The City seems to have two goals in mind: First, find a secondary water supply so all of our eggs are not in one basket; Second to lower our well field use to 5 million gallons a day to allow the aquifers to refill over time. The City plans to always use the well fields but would like to raise the water levels. Using a secondary water source will accomplish this goal.
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8. Why don't we just build our own lake like Kaw?
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Kaw and many other man made lakes have rivers flowing into them or large amounts of water runoff to supply them. Enid does not have a large water shed to fill a lake other than the aquifers that are already declining.
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9. Why not use water from Canton?
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Enid used to own water rights to Canton but let those rights lapse and Oklahoma City now owns 100% rights to that water.
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10. How will the pipeline be paid for?
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The majority of the pipeline will be paid for with a new 3/4 cent sales tax and a continuation of a 1/4 cent sales tax. The sales tax spreads the burden of the cost to everyone that shops in Enid including non-residents, who will pay 45% of the cost. The largest consumers will pay the most tax.
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It will be a 35-year tax which is much like a 30-year home mortgage to get the best rate. A penny a year at the present sales tax rate is 8.5 million per year. If you do the math it comes in at just under $300 million which is short of the $360 million. The City does projections and they calculate in some increases in taxable revenue and they hope the economy does not stay down, so there is fluctuation in the numbers.
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They do admit that down the road there will need to be budget money used to supplement the project. One thing we did not think to ask was about interest payments on a loan if the City has to borrow the money to pay for the project up front.
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11. Will the extra sales tax drive out of town shoppers to other retail areas?
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It's an age old argument but the city does not believe that a 3/4 cent sales tax increase is enough to cause shoppers to drive further to save a few pennies. Stores and restaurants in Enid would not be able to locate here without water.
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12. What is plan B if this sales tax increase fails?
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The City of Enid has gone through the other plans and it's been decided that this is the only feasible way to create a secondary source of water for the city. If the sales tax fails there really is no plan B at this time but the city commissioners know something is going to have to be done. A $360 million project cannot come out of the city budget so the pipeline will most likely be put on hold. Enid will have to go back to the drawing board and at some stage they might have to look at other ways of funding the project.
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13. What if land or construction costs come in more than projected?
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Contingencies have been built into the cost of the project. If everything goes well the overall cost could actually come in much cheaper. There is a planned route for the pipeline but all landowners have not been contacted or agreed to allow the pipeline to cross their property including three Native American lands. It's about 57 miles straight from Kaw but the contingency is for a 70 mile pipeline.
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14. What are the benefits of having a secondary source of water?
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Having a secondary source of water guarantees that we will not run out of water. Additional water sources also increase the number of industries we can attract to Enid. Enid also currently sells water to other entities like Perry Acres, Chisholm and Pioneer-Pleasantville in which we make a profit which helps offset our costs. Adding additional water could allow us to sell more water to smaller communities like Garber in the future. The amounts they would use would have little affect on our overall supply.
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15. Does this mean there won't be any money for roads?
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According to the information provided, this sales tax will protect the current 1-cent capital improvement sales tax which now helps pay for street maintenance and economic growth.
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16. Won't Enid just drain Kaw Lake like OKC did at Canton?
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OKC owned 100% of the water rights at Canton. Enid will only own 9% of the water rights at Kaw. 30% of the water rights are not being used and the Corps of Army Engineers keeps 15% of the water in the lake for water quality.
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The Kaw Reservoir has stayed close to 100% full or above since 1994 even with Stillwater using 25% of the water rights. Most of the unused water in Kaw goes over the spillway.
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17. How long would this water supply help us?
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The projection is at least a 50 year fix but the City believes this could help us up to a population of 75,000 with the industry to go along with that. We will be buying the rights to more water than we need because we don't know what the peak amounts will be.
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18. How does the water get to Enid?
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The water will come through a steel pipe buried underground. There will be a pumping station somewhere between and Kaw and Enid.
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19. The project will have two surface water storage areas, could these be used as lakes?
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Possibly. The lagoon that will be on the west side of Enid near the water treatment plant cannot. It will be a rectangle area with liner and no vegetation around the area. This is to prevent the geese from wanting to be there which could cause problems with jets from Vance.
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The other water area east of Enid, possibly near Garber, will be more like an 80 acre lake. If the City deemed it open to the public it could be used for camping and fishing. This question would have to be addressed by the city commission.
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20. How long will this project take before we see Kaw water in Enid?
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The time projection for this project is 5-7 years which is one reason the City feels the need to begin something now.
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21. I've heard the Kaw water is dirty, why would we want to use it?
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Because it is surface water the quality of the water will not be as good as our aquifer water which we drink alomst straight from the ground. That is why there will be a water treatment plant to treat the water. The plan is to use 2 gallons of Kaw water mixed with 1 gallon of well field water to make a better quality product for local residents.
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Conclusion:
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These are the best answers I could get up to this point. If you have questions about these answers please contact Ernie Currier at YesEnidWater@gmail.com. If you see I've gotten something completely wrong please let me know at buzz@enidbuzz.com. If you have differing views on this project and want to present me with facts and figures I will post that information as well.
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Everything You Wanted To Know About The Kaw Pipeline Project
