LETTER: Vote yes to help ensure clean, safe drinking water for residents

May 14, 2023

Editor, The Transcript:

The Sierra Club, Red Earth Group, announces our enthusiastic endorsement for Norman's Water Rate Proposition. We encourage a "yes" vote to this proposition, which will increase our water rates to help ensure clean and safe drinking water for our residents. The election is on Tuesday, June 13.

Norman is the only city in Oklahoma where the residents, instead of government officials, decide on water rate increases. We have not voted in favor of a water rate increase since 2015, even though the costs of maintaining clean and safe drinking water have risen significantly in these eight years.

Part of the revenue generated from this rate increase will go towards building a new facility to fully disinfect our groundwater. Right now our groundwater treatment process is not in compliance with the minimum water quality and safety standards set by the Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ. (Because Norman uses a combination of surface water and ground water, we are required by the DEQ to disinfect our groundwater.)

A new disinfection system will help protect us from E. coli and will prevent us from having to boil our water like many of us had to do in May of 2021. The facility will also ensure that our water does not contain unacceptable levels of hexavalent chromium and arsenic.

This proposed facility is a pared down version, without the storage tank and pump system, of the facility proposed in the 2022 water rate proposition that did not pass.

The water rate increase will also help provide the needed funds to start the process of identifying and replacing the lead water pipes in Norman. These would be some of the connector lines (not main waterlines) that were built before 1991, which was when lead in piping was completely banned.

There are about 20,000 homes in Norman with public and private service lines that need to be inventoried, as mandated by the EPA's new requirements under the Lead and Copper Rule Revision. This innovatory process must be implemented by October 2024, and it is largely unfunded. (Loan forgiveness for about a third of the cost may apply because of the Federal Infrastructure Law.)

And finally, the rate increase will help replace our old and fragile waterlines that are breaking at an increasing rate. Anyone who had seen a spewing waterline can see what a waste of water this is. Nationally, Norman ranks in the worst 25% for water line breaks and leaks.

Right now Norman's water rate is one of the lowest in the state. And if this rate increase is approved by the voters, the rate will still be one of the lowest. Plus, the less water you use, the less your rate will increase. So, this is a great incentive to conserve water.

Please vote Yes for the Water Rate Proposition!

Members of the Red Earth Group Executive Committee: Claire Dittelmier, Sherrie McNall, Heather Supinie, Robert Scafe, Suzette McDowell, and Howie Baer.

Claire Dittelmier, Norman

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