Atoka reviews new inter-municipal wastewater agreement, secures larger share of expanded lagoon capacity

Atoka officials reviewed a proposed three-party wastewater agreement with Munford and Brighton that recalculates each town’s share of a planned expansion at the regional lagoon and adds new governance safeguards.

The town’s attorney, Amber (Town Attorney), walked the board through the 25-page draft, describing changes from an older perpetual agreement dating to 1985 and the replacement of multiple legacy contracts with a single modern agreement. “We incorporated the agreement between Atoka and Brighton as to the maintenance and the usage of the Brighton force main that connects it to Atoka,” she said.

The new contract ties each town to a defined percentage of the expanded 1,000,000-gallon capacity increase and establishes that Atoka’s negotiated share will be 46 percent. It also changes how operation and maintenance costs are allocated: instead of monthly bills based on actual metered usage, each party will pay a fixed share tied to its percentage capacity. Amber told the board depreciation on the new expansion will be calculated only on the new expansion cost, begin after completion and run for 40 years.

Why it matters: the change reduces Atoka’s exposure to sudden bills based on disputed metering or rainfall-driven inflow; it also gives Atoka a larger formal share of new capacity than under the prior percentages. The agreement includes a moratorium procedure: if total plant usage exceeds 90 percent of capacity for more than 15 days, a municipality may trigger a temporary moratorium on new connections after written notice and following the process in the contract appendix.

Board discussion focused on oversight during construction and dispute resolution. The agreement gives all three municipalities access to construction documents and requires unanimous consent to proceed with change orders; if the parties cannot agree, work pauses until a solution is reached. The contract requires attempts at nonbinding arbitration before court action for unresolved disputes.

Town staff and the attorney said the document is intended to be time-limited (maximum 10 years) with reviews at 24 months and again annually thereafter to allow adjustments if actual usage patterns differ from projections.

A motion was made on the floor to approve the agreement and to authorize the mayor to sign on Atoka’s behalf; the transcript records that a motion was made and discussed but does not include the final roll-call outcome in the recorded excerpt.

The board and staff said the agreement clears a major obstacle to moving forward with the lagoon expansion that Atoka is funding in part with ARPA dollars; Munford has already acted on a related vote, staff said. The town attorney and municipal staff said they will circulate the final edits requested by partner towns and return the finalized instrument for formal adoption in a subsequent public meeting.

Looking ahead: the towns will revisit the percentage allocations 24 months after the expansion and annually after that; the contract also contains a clear procedure for imposing and lifting moratoria on new connections.