Muskogee Leaders Urge Conservation As Crews Work To Repair Water Systems

Many Muskogee County residents have low water pressure or none at all because of last week’s winter storm.

"This is an unprecedented event," said Oktaha resident John Standridge. "We are having low water pressure, a lot of people have run out of water. Water pressure is not good at all when it's there."

It's a problem thousands of Muskogee residents are facing. Standrige, along with many Oktaha residents, have had low water pressure since last week. 

The county said it's due to high usage and from Muskogee water lines bursting because of the cold. Some people are relying on bottled water, while others are taking buckets of water and filling it up at the rural water district.

"This is pretty critical. I've been in this job for a long time I never seen anything like this before," said Muskogee County Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith. 

Smith says people could see water pressure issues a few more days.

"We have at least four towns that are on boil orders right now. We're trying to support the volunteer fire department. We're going to have to have other fire department on standby to bring resources in," Smith said.

The City of Muskogee supplies water to all the rural water districts in the county. The city said there's not a water shortage, but just a problem getting water to individual homes.

The picture below is in Haskell, where a large water line break is being repaired. That leak could be affecting some Muskogee residents.

“The city of Muskogee is producing a high volume of water for our customers. Our rural water districts in some cases are receiving double the amount of water they were getting before the storm. We are working with them to make sure they have the water they need, and they repair the leaks in their system to bring demand back to normal,” Muskogee city manager Mike Miller said.

Both the city and the county say they will not be shutting people's water off. However, they ask people to conserve water until all repairs are made.