Council dislikes using water only from Clinton Lake

Some members of the Clinton City Council expressed concern Tuesday that the city is using all Clinton Lake water at a time when it’s having to pay for water from other sources that it’s not using.
“Clinton Lake is almost at drought level,” said Councilman Bobby Stewart. “We’re paying Foss and Canute and running Clinton Lake dry.”
City Manager Mark Skiles explained that the Clinton Lake water is the highest-quality water the city has and he thinks the citizens deserve the best. Besides, he said, “Mother Nature takes more than we do.”
In other words, if the city wasn’t using the Clinton Lake water, much of it would just be evaporating into the air.
Stewart made his comment early in a presentation by Lonnie Teel, the city’s consultant on its new reverse osmosis water treatment plant at the west edge of town as well as other construction and engineering projects.
Councilman Jason Hulin quickly supported Stewart.
“I appreciate your presentation,” Hulin told Teel. “We don’t know what we’re doing out there. I didn’t know we were treating water at the R.O. plant.”
Skiles said the city is “not exactly treating water” at the plant yet – that it’s more like testing. “We really didn’t have anything to tell you till now,” he said.
Hulin replied that Clinton Lake is the city’s cheapest source of water and to him it doesn’t make sense to be “overusing our cheapest water source.”
He added, “We’re pulling 100 percent from Clinton Lake every day. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t like our cheapest water supply being drained. It doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” agreed Councilman Don Rodolph.
The city has “take-or-pay” contracts with the Foss Reservoir Master Conservancy District and the Town of Canute. In other words, it must pay regardless of whether it uses the water it’s entitled to or not. City Treasurer Debra Blanchard confirmed Wednesday that the payment to Foss is about $80,000 a month and to Canute it’s about $25,000. 
In addition, it has a contract with Johnnie Dixon, from whom it bought water rights a few years ago, for which he’s being paid $50,000 a year.
All of those are long-term contracts entered into when the city was gasping for water.
“It makes no sense to drain our cheapest water supply,” insisted Hulin, referring to Clinton Lake. He said at some point “we’re going to be relying 100 percent on Foss and a few wells.”
He added, “We’ve spent a whole summer and a half draining Clinton Lake.”
Skiles implied that the city’s biggest water customer, Bar-S Foods, prefers the Clinton Lake water.
“Bar-S can tell when we turn Foss on,” he said.
Stewart wanted to know if the city even has a water department anymore.
“Our staff is being trained in how to operate the R.O. plant,” replied Skiles. Stewart asked specifically who is being trained to run the new plant.
Skiles said it’s Donald Webb (the city’s public works director) and Gary Kluckner. He also added that one reason Clinton Lake water is so cheap is that it has no pumps, that the water runs by gravity from the lake to town.
Teel invited all the councilmen out to tour the new plant and watch it perform during its testing phase. He said it’s running from about 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
He also said the plant can be started anytime now and he can operate it from his phone. However, he said the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality wants to monitor the chlorine and do three or four other tests before the city starts using water from it.
Rodolph asked where the water is coming from which the city is using in its tests. He was told the Dixon well and two the city had drilled at Riverside Golf Course.
“We make water and put it back into the Washita River,” said Teel. “This morning we made about 300,000 gallons.”
After the lengthy water discussion ended, the council went into an hour-long executive session to evaluate the city manager’s job performance. When they returned to open session, no action was taken and no comments were made.
But before the meeting adjourned, Skiles said he wanted to thank some people for doing extra work to make the city look nice. He said citizen Jimmy Littke uses his own time to mow places that need it and to pick up trash.
“He just showed up and did it,” said the manager.
He then thanked city employee Jerel Collins for going above and beyond.
Finally, Skiles had a personal note he wanted to mention. He said one of his small grandsons had been found floating in a pool at Altus and one of his daughters, Shelly (who’s the child’s aunt) had given him extensive CPR. It saved his life, said the grateful grandfather.