Warr Acres city officials declared an emergency and authorized immediate action after a section of the city sewer main collapsed on the 7200 block of Shoreline Drive, creating a sinkhole and exposing an active sewer flow near private homes.

Public works staff told the council they received citizen reports and found a void that emitted hydrogen sulfide and audible flowing sewage. "It's about the size of 4 couches," a staff member said of the sinkhole, which staff estimated at roughly 7–8 feet deep. The same presentation included city flow estimates for the combined junction at about 3,000,000 gallons per day (about 34 gallons per second) and a warning that heavy rain could roughly double those volumes.

City attorneys advised that the situation met the statutory criteria for emergency action. Council members voted to declare an emergency under the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act to allow immediate deliberation and then separately declared an emergency under the Oklahoma Public Competitive Bidding Act to enable emergency contracting without the usual competitive-bid delay.

Under the emergency authorities the council authorized the public works director to expand expenditures from the sewer line maintenance fund to respond to the collapse. The actions specifically allow temporary bypass pumping, obtaining video inspection, purchasing supplies to secure the site, excavating to determine the extent of damage and hiring contractors to perform necessary work. Staff told the council a CCTV inspection of the ~150-foot section was not possible in place because high flow and a drop structure had previously trapped camera equipment; they had reached out to Hydro Max and met with a representative from Kraft Reynolds for preliminary assessment.

Staff estimated bypass pumping and camera work could be in the neighborhood of $50,000, while a full repair could range up to about $300,000 depending on whether only a short point repair is needed or the line must be replaced. As a point of comparison, staff cited a prior cured-in-place versus excavation cost of about $1,700 per foot at another project. Councilmembers and staff emphasized they would initially authorize time-and-material emergency work to stabilize the site rather than attempt upsizing the interceptor in this immediate action.

Council discussion noted a possible contributing factor: an OG&E utility pole installed decades ago sits above the line and may have weakened the pipe, but staff said the true cause and the full extent of undermining cannot be known until excavation. Barricades were placed where part of the sinkhole extends under the street; staff stressed the risk to people who might fall into the cavity.

Because the emergency work will use local maintenance funds rather than larger loan proceeds (staff said the OWRB loan/SRF funds would not cover upsizing to the full planned interceptor), the council also approved language to allow the mayor to execute an emergency contract with the lowest and best bidder on a time-and-materials basis and to document outreach to multiple contractors to satisfy emergency procurement rules. The council voted to include any qualified contractor (not limited to the two named contractors on the agenda) when soliciting bids under the emergency process.

Recognizing contractor concerns about delayed payment in prior work, the council approved Item 6 to permit expedited payments to contractors performing emergency work so they can be paid sooner than the usual OWRB-fund process would allow; staff said such payments would be reported back to the council for transparency. Council members also said emergency actions taken now would be brought back for ratification at a subsequent regular meeting.

The council concluded business and adjourned. Further steps include excavating the damaged section to assess the true scope of repair, receiving contractor time-and-materials proposals, and returning to the council for ratification and any additional funding decisions.