McALESTER, Okla. — McAlester residents should start having fewer problems with their water service after the City took over control of the city’s water treatment plant.

FOX23 visited the plant and talked with City officials about the changes.

This is a big deal for the City of McAlester as they have seen around 50 water issues since the year started.

With low water pressure or water line breaks, but now the City said this takeover should help decrease those numbers quite a bit.

“It’s been a challenge, but it will be very rewarding for the City of McAlester and the citizens. It will be a big improvement for our water quality. It’ll be a big improvement for money saving. It’ll be a big improvement just to take care of the facilities that we have and make sure that everything is taken care of,” said Nick Manning, the City of McAlester’s utility director.

Manning said that the City taking over the water treatment plant on July 1 will help the City save lots of money when it comes to new improvements.

“It’s going to involve improvements where we are switching over from 2400 volts to a 480 volts system, which pretty much is going to cut our electric bill in half. It’ll give us large money savings there. As far as water quality and chemicals, that will be a big saving,” Manning said.

The takeover allows them to retain vital infrastructure and ensure high standards of water quality.

Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Lucky Huff said it will be a process, but it will be worth it for the City and the residents.

FOX23 asked Huff what the first thing on their list would be after the takeover.

“Well again that first part of the puzzle for us is getting reliable power here at the facility. With reliable power, we don’t have to worry about outages as much as normal places would. Having that reliable power source is going to be cheaper for us here and for the citizens which in the long run is going to save everybody money,” Huff said.

While this is just the beginning of the takeover, they said it’s going to be a work in progress.

Within a year, they said residents in McAlester should notice a huge change when it comes to the water quality and a decline in the water issues.