Some Okmulgee County residents without water, but no cause determined

A few hundred customers in the Preston water district are under a boil water notice. That is, if they can get any water flowing.

Randy Sissom told 2 News he knows the drill by now: Get personal jugs, head to the Okmulgee Rural Water District 2 office, and fill up from the faucet or its two water buffaloes.

"We've pretty well dealt with dirty water and no water since probably four years ago," Sissom said.

A District 2 RWD ( Preston ) official said the situations happen frequently during the summer and winter when not enough pressure can flow from City of Okmulgee's supply to the rural water districts north of town, putting Preston at a disadvantageous position.

• Previous coverage >>> Rural Okmulgee County residents without water almost two weeks

"Hottest part of the summer, you got animals that you've got to water, things that you don't even generally think about that you take for granted," Sissom added. "And then all of a sudden you've got to interrupt your entire life to running (and) grabbing buckets of water."
Steve and Melissa Beall consider themselves lucky to have family to visit when their water stops working despite having to follow the same routine with their own buckets.

"We really don't know what the problem is or where it starts," Melissa Beall said. "They just haven't given us anything, if it's been a pump, or the filter is stopped up, or the intake is bad," her husband added.

Several days after District 2 reported the outage on July 27, City of Okmulgee said it's still trying to find a cause.

City workers were seen testing hydrant pressure Wednesday along Old Highway 75 leading north to Preston, but nothing to cause a major shortage was found.

In the meantime, District 2 asks residents to continue boiling their water for at least an hour before using it.

"Until we get some major changes...this is just how life is going to be," Sissom said. "You're gonna have to just have spare tanks at your house I guess, and just be prepared for two weeks of no water at any given time."

The Biden Administration's rural development director for Oklahoma announced Wednesday the USDA is making available more than $12.1 million in infrastructure improvements delivered for rural water and wastewater projects across Oklahoma, including Tulsa County, Muscogee County, Sequoyah County, Atoka County and Delaware County.

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