Owasso’s $22 million wastewater treatment plant expansion almost complete

OWASSO, Okla. — At Tuesday’s annual State of the City address, Owasso city leaders discussed major projects that are already in the works to accommodate for the area’s residential and commercial growth.

It’s largest undertaking is a $22 million wastewater treatment plant expansion.

Owasso Public Works Director Roger Stevens provided FOX23 news with an on-site tour of its new headworks station, where the pretreatment process gets underway.

“This is the biggest project that the city of Owasso has ever undertaken,” Rogers explained. “It’s needed to continue to treat the waste, provide and allow growth to continue to occur within the city of Owasso.”

The expansion will also allow Owasso to meet the requirements set by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

The project includes a new aeration basin, which is not only important for growth, but for the health of the environment, according to Stevens.

“This goes through a body of water,” he explained. “Not just the receiving stream, but it goes to Bird Creek, it goes to [the] Verdigris River, it goes to the Arkansas River, eventually the Arkansas River goes all the way down to New Orleans so there’s a lot of people impacted.”

The expansion is 75 percent complete and expected to be finished by June of 2023.

An $11 million road widening project extending from the intersection of Garnett Road at East 116th Street and extending all the way to North 129th East Avenue is also underway in Owasso.

“The volume of traffic alone, we’ve got over 12 thousand vehicles per day on a two lane roadway. That alone justifies a road widening,” Rogers said.

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Rogers said communicating with neighbors is key to let citizens know what’s going on through social media, along with the public meetings they’ve held in the past.

“It really hasn’t interfered too much with me, because I don’t come and go too much, because of my age,” she said. “I can hear the noise, but the house is pretty sound proof.”

Sally Keblish, whose front yard overlooks what is now a construction zone, says despite the noise, she believes the road upgrade is needed:

“Yes, really because of all the housing out here and then the stores down the street a little ways has a lot of business, so yes they really do need the two lane streets widened,” she said.

That project is scheduled to be complete by September of 2023.

FOX23 News did talk with a gentleman off camera who is not a fan of the growth in Owasso. So much so that he told us he moved to the Collinsville/ Ramona area.

For more information on public works projects, just click here.