Residents Without Water, What's Choctaw's Solution?

Residents in Choctaw said water main breaks have become an all-too-common occurrence in their town, and questions are rising about how the city plans to find a long-term solution. 

"We do have an aging infrastructure, some of these lines are 50 years old," City Manager Brian Linley said. 

Choctaw's city Facebook page is littered with posts alerting residents they'll be without water, and the most recent break was this weekend. 

Linley says he feels his neighbors’ frustration firsthand. "The mayor and I both live over in that neighborhood and neither one of us had water," he said. 

This water main break was one of several in past years. Linley didn't have an exact number, but News 9 spoke with several people in Choctaw who say they recall losing their water 3-4 times each in the last year. "I will tell you it's been a number of breaks," Linley said. 

One neighbor who didn't want to appear on camera said the city is putting a band-aid on a larger issue while making room for new developments on top of aging infrastructure. "The last thing we want to do is develop too fast,” Linley said. “We need to develop smartly and we need to do it the right way and at the right pace." 

He says the water main issues will be a top priority in 2024. "Exploring what we can do in the way of looping our lines is extremely important because that provides great relief to our lines," Linley explained. "By looping them, it makes it so the infrastructure is more forgiving when pressure goes up and down." 

He says the city is still waiting for budget assessments before a plan is finalized. 

Linley didn’t have a firm date on when the plan to loop the water lines will be rolled out to the public for a vote, but he assured a long-term solution is in the works.