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Three years ago, Altus experienced a drought that lowered the level of drinking water in the Tom Steed Reservoir significantly. This led to an increase in organic matter and chemicals in the water which brought the water quality to fall under the Environmental Protective Agency standards. This development raised alarms for Altus Air Force Base and the City of Altus.
“The initial response from the base and city was to implement conservation measures to help stretch our water resources further,” said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Christian Felder, 97th Medical Operations Squadron bioenvironmental engineer. “This included outdoor watering restrictions and limits on the days that cars could be washed. At the same time, the City began exploring all available options to access other water sources as the surface water supplies in the area got smaller.”
In the years since, the water quality has improved greatly thanks to several changes made and efforts from the City of Altus and Altus AFB. The base and the city begin to seek out potential avenues to correct and eliminate the issue. As such, the 97th MDOS bioenvironmental flight got involved with the issue.
“We did routine monitoring in both local and state labs,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. William Barnett Jr., 97th MDOS bioenvironmental engineer technician. “We also sent out public notifications through base housing quarterly along with flushing recommendations.”
Those weren’t the only measures that were taken to help resolve the water quality issue.
The community and the base came together to establish the Southwest Oklahoma Water Action Plan as well as the Water Task Force to monitor the quantity and quality challenges, identify solutions and act on those ideas, said Felder. This included representatives from Altus AFB, the City of Altus, the Chamber of Commerce, the agriculture industry, Tom Steed Reservoir and Lake Altus-Lugert.
“The bioenvironmental flight spent countless hours, days and weeks in order to make sure the city and base were receiving quality drinking water,” said Felder. “We are currently sampling and meeting to ensure the quality of our drinking water stays in compliance.”
The hard work and dedication of the base, city and residents have finally paid off three years later.
“Our drinking water is completely safe and within EPA governed standards,” said Barnett.
“It shows the hard work and dedication by base agencies to ensure that our people are taken care of,” said Felder. “With the amount of work that the base put in with the City of Altus, our relationship and community partnership has increased and we hope to be able to continue that success.”
The hard work and dedication of the base and the city brought clean and safe water to Altus and amplifies the importance placed on community and base relations.
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2017 16:48 |
| Story ID: | 234967 |
| Location: | ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Closing a 3-year Deficiency; Altus’s Potable Water, by SrA Jackson Haddon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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