Claremore Expanding Water Production As City Continues Growth

Some people in Claremore took to Facebook to complain about their tap water smelling bad. They said it happened every time there’s a heavy rain.

The city manager and the water department said they haven't received any complaints about the water recently, but they are working to expand how much water the city produces.

People passing by the water treatment plant have probably noticed the big mound of dirt and heavy machinery; it's part of a $17 million project to double the city's water capacity by August of 2017.

Claremore's population continues to grow, and City Manager Jim Thomas said the water production needs to keep up.

"We see a lot of residential growth coming about, as well as retail growth. A community can't grow without water, and Claremore is, fortunately, going to have enough water capacity," he said.

The city processes over four million gallons of water every day; when the two-year project is done, that'll go up to eight million gallons.

Thomas said the upgrades will flow into the long-term plan for the city.

"They need to not only plan for today, but strategically, 20-30 years down the road. We are fortunate the mayor and the city council is supportive of that," Thomas said.

They’re paying for the project with a short-term loan with RCB Bank and passing that cost on to customers who are already seeing an increase on their water bills.

Project manager, Bob Martin said, "We went through an extensive screening process with our contractors before we let the contract. So we did a lot of research on these companies."

Martin said, when it's done, there will be two new filters, a low lift pump station, new clear well and new high lift pump station. The original facility will stay, but will be connected to the new one.

"The consumer will not see anything. That's pretty much the case. That's been our goal the whole time. The consumer should not see anything except for the movement around here," Martin said.

Voters approved a bond about 15 years ago to build a new water plant, but engineering problems shut it down.

City leaders said engineers have taken a look at where that project went wrong to make sure it doesn't happen again.