State investigates allegations that City of Lawton is dumping solid, untreated waste into nearby creeks

LAWTON, Okla. (KFOR) — The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) told News 4 that after several complaints about possibly impaired conditions of East Cache Creek, the agency is now investigating.

A TikTok video now gone viral shows a monthly Comanche Nation meeting where a tribal member shines a light on concerns involving the City of Lawton and what it’s allegedly dumping in East Cache Creek.

“It’s come to my attention this week that the City of Lawton, under their new construction of the waste water plant has been dumping into Comanche waters solid, untreated waste into East Cache Creek. We have homes all along that creek. We have homes and water sources for our tribal members in Walters,” a Comanche Nation tribal member said last week.

A Comanche Nation Tribal Office of Environmental Programs representative responded to the tribal member’s concerns saying they have received reports of the East Cache Creek looking “black.”

That representative added an independent water test from a tribal member shows 2,312 contamination counts of E. Coli. He said his office had since sent those test results to ODEQ for investigation and also tested the water himself Monday.

“DEQ has received several complaints about possibly impaired conditions of East Cache Creek, and we are currently investigating the matter. The City of Lawton was out of compliance with their municipal discharge permit which resulted in a Consent Order (CO). The CO requires Lawton to work towards compliance and meet permit conditions by the end of the order. Based on the ongoing investigation, if appropriate, DEQ could issue an additional enforcement order,” said ODEQ Office of Communications & Education Director, Erin Hatfield.

“There’s no such thing as a soft, safe waste. Waste is waste any way you look at it. And I’m concerned that it’s going to ruin our water system,” said another Lawton resident, Taja Bling. “It’s a very controversial subject, but for the native people, our burial grounds have been disrupted.”

News 4 asked City of Lawton City Manager John Ratliff if the allegations were true. He said no and first pointed to how the city is not directly dumping into East Cache Creek, but a creek that converges into it called the Nine-Mile Creek.

“The City of Lawton is not dumping untreated water, raw, solid waste into the creek. With that being said, the City of Lawton has had a bit of a checkered past when it comes to wastewater, ensuring that the water that we’re discharging meets Department of Environmental Quality standards,” he said. “When water is stagnant and you have organic matter decomposing, it can turn it green, it can turn to black. I think that’s some of it. I think the other part of it is we know that some of the water that we’re discharging doesn’t meet DEQ standard. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that what we’re doing is perfect because it isn’t. But we’re trying to fix it.”

Long-time Lawton resident Kaysa Whitley said she’s part of Westin Resistance, a group that has been “putting pressure on the City of Lawton.”

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“One thing that all the tribal members really kind of hold in common is that we believe that water is life, so we will do anything to protect it,” she said.

Whitley not only blames the wastewater treatment plant for the alleged contamination, but also a nearby cobalt refinery.

Bling also said she believes a part of the reason for the contamination comes from the cobalt refinery.

“I really think the city is thinking about money. They’re thinking about the money and they’re not thinking about the people. There’s no safe dumping. Any dumping is wasteful. Dumping waste and chemical dumping directly affects the water,” said Bling.

The ODEQ imposed a consent order on the City of Lawton in 1997 and then again in 2000 for impermissible discharges of wastewater.

ODEQ issued more consent orders in 2003, 2011, 2013, 2019, and the most recent being in 2021.

In 2021, Ratliff said ODEQ mandated the city bring the wastewater treatment plant up to standard.

“In fairness, [East Cache Creek] is 25 miles long. There’s other people discharging into the creek. We realize that we have a target on our back because of our past, our past history. And we’re actively working to mitigate that in the future,” said Ratliff.

As of this month, the $85 million project to upgrade the treatment plant is 40 percent complete, with an estimated 15 months until full completion.

“You’re replacing equipment and sometimes that leads to discharges that are not fully compliant,” added Ratliff.

Ratliff admitted where the city falls short in compliance is keeping solid matter out of wastewater.

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Ratliff also addressed the concerns of there being E. Coli in East Cache Creek.

Under current state regulations, the City of Lawton is not required to test its waters for E. Coli from October through May. It does, however, test for a variety of other things during that time frame such as ammonia and dissolved oxygen.

In a bio-aquatic test requested by the city in February shows is no threat to marine life or humans.

“We would always encourage people not to drink out of the creek. But certainly, given these these allegations, we want people to be safe,” said Ratliff.

A Lawton resident, not wishing to be identified, did request a private lab test of samples they took from East Cache Creek, Thia Pai Park and Nine-Mile Creek. Those results came back Tuesday.

“Treated or untreated, clearly the numbers don’t lie. So something is not okay,” said Whitley.

While Nine-Mile Creek has an acceptable level of E. Coli in the water, East Cache Creek and Thia Pai Park appear to have a dangerously high levels of E. Coli.

The reporting limit is 1,000, but the count currently sits at 52,000 for East Cache.

Thia Pai Park shows a level of 1,050,000 for E. Coli.

“Given the nature of the complaint, one of the measures that we’ve taken is we’ve increased the flow through the creek system. So on Monday, we raised the dam gate at the Lake Lawtonka spillway three inches. That significantly increased the flow and decreased the stagnation throughout the creek system. I think that’s one thing that can positively address this issue. But certainly E. Coli testing is something that we’re going to do, as well as kind of ratcheting up our internal standards to make sure that whatever that we’re doing that’s contributing to this issue is fixed and is fixed immediately,” explained Ratliff.

Whitley said the damage is already done.

“I think they can say that it doesn’t bother the fish or the aquatic life. But the reality is that Wolf Creek, Nine-Mile Creek, East Cache Creek, they all run basically in between Lake Ellsworth and Red River, which means that it clearly does affect the local wildlife, because in Madison Park, they have signs that say don’t eat the fish. The city literally had to put something out that said, ‘By the way, the water’s safe, but don’t consume it and don’t play in it,'” said Whitley.

Ratliff told KFOR it has been in constant communication with ODEQ, but it has not had a formal conversation with the Comanche Nation yet. Ratliff plans to reach out to the tribe soon though.

“They are community partners. They, like all of us, we drink this water, and so we want to make sure it’s safe. We have a vested interest in making sure it’s safe. We want to let them know everything that we’re doing to mitigate this issue and be good neighbors,” said Ratliff. “We’re not convinced that we’re the sole contributor to this problem, but we’re going to do everything that we can. We’re going to increase the flow. We’re going to increase our testing. We are going to ensure the equipment that we’re replacing and the upgrades in our facilities don’t contribute to issues like that.”

News 4 reached out to the Comanche Nation for more information, but it declined an interview.

“No comment,” a Comanche Nation representative told KFOR on Tuesday afternoon.

Whitley said she doesn’t have any hope the concerns with wastewater in Lawton will be relieved any time soon.

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