By Daniela Julio-Cano, FOX23.com News Staff
CLAREMORE, Okla. — The City of Claremore has completed a $28 million project to modernize its water treatment plant, an investment city leaders said will improve water quality and reliability while preparing the system for future growth.
The project included new greensand filtration and chemical feed systems, improvements to existing treatment lagoons, a rerouted lagoon outfall and renovations to existing facilities.
John Feary, Claremore’s city manager, said the project is part of more than $50 million the city has invested in its water distribution system and water treatment plant over the past eight years.
For the first time in two consecutive years, Feary said Claremore has not received a notice of violation through the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
“They deserve clean water,” Feary stated. “They deserve sanitary sewer lines. They deserve reliable infrastructure and that’s what this investment for Claremore is.”
One of the project’s focuses is addressing manganese, a naturally occurring metal found in water sources in northeast Oklahoma.
Feary said the city wanted to get ahead of potential future federal regulations while also addressing the age of its existing treatment plant.
“Manganese is a metal that the federal government is getting ready to start regulating, so there was going to be a mandate soon that basically said you have to account for this. We wanted to do this now, get out in front of it.”
The new greensand filtration system uses manganese-coated media designed to capture manganese during the treatment process.
Project manager Jason Garder with Burns & McDonnell said the system also helps remove organic material from the city’s source water.
“What we are doing is bringing in solutions that are used across the country to target high manganese in the water and use that to improve the overall water quality,” Garder explained.
The project was completed through a progressive design-build approach, with Burns & McDonnel working alongside the City of Claremore, plant operator Inframark and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
Garder said the project took about five years and was designed specifically around Claremore’s water source and treatment needs.
The upgrades also give plant operators more flexibility in how they treat the water as conditions change.
“What we did is provide the city and the operation staff a number of ways to continue to optimize so they got better choices,” Garder said. “They have more adaptability to adapt to the water as the water quality coming into the plant changes.”
The city also designed the improvements with future growth in mind.
Feary said Claremore’s water studies projected the need for these improvements to support anticipated growth through 2070.
“We’re seeing record number of housing,” said Feary. “We’re seeing record number of retail. We’re seeing record number of commercial developments and industrial developments. This project makes sure that we can continue to provide the water that everybody needs to be successful.”
City leaders said residents should ultimately benefit from a water treatment system that is cleaner, more reliable and better equipped to meet Claremore’s needs for decades to come.
