A new $5.3 million water treatment plant brings Checotah into compliance with state water regulations and increases the city’s capacity for growth, officials said.

The new plant has a 2.8 million gallon per day capacity, double the capacity of the old plant.

Checotah Mayor Marvin Nichols said the new facility is southwest of the city on top of the same hill as the old facility. The hilltop location enables treated water to be gravity fed to residential and business customers.

“It’s all contained in one building,” Nichols said of the new plant. “It has already dropped the water down to within (Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality) limits. That’s the reason we had to build it; because we were under a consent order.”

Nichols said the former plant was 20 or 30 years old, so the city was overdue for a replacement.

“We’re real proud of our new plant,” he said. “We just had our grand opening,” he said. “The citizens are going to have better water for a longer period of time, and the hazards of these chemicals, according to DEQ, will be eliminated. And, we supply Checotah’s water and about seven or eight districts around. We’re supplying quite a bit of water.”

The city draws its water from Lake Eufaula.

Nichols said the new plant will provide not only healthier water, but more of it.

“With increasing town size, we’ll be able to grow more and more,” he said. “Checotah is going through a little bit of a boom right now. Naturally, you’re going to need more water. This plant will supply that down through the years. It helps with our growth.”

Designer Jay Updike, with Holloway Updike and Bellen Inc. in Muskogee, said his company has done many such facilities.

“We’ve designed water plants all over eastern Oklahoma,” he said.

One of the unique features of the new plant is state-of-the-art water clarification equipment that is smaller than the old equipment so it could be placed indoors, Updike said.

“It’s all computer controlled,” he said. “The operators can even control it from home via the Internet, if necessary. It services 8,000 to 9,000 people.”

Updike said the plant was financed with a low-interest loan from the state; 3.5 percent for 20 years.