Looking to improve organizational efficiency and coordination, the City of Norman, Oklahoma, recently created a new division within its Utilities Department to oversee various programs related to water quality. The reorganization is expected to help Norman in its efforts to better promote the One Water approach, city officials say.

New division

Announced in mid-April, the new Division of Environmental Resilience & Sustainability (DoERS) oversees the city’s programs regarding industrial pretreatment, household hazardous waste, compliance with stormwater municipal separate storm sewer system requirements, total maximum daily load monitoring and compliance, and cross-connection control.  

“The new division will also manage the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, researching and transitioning to sustainable energy sources, increasing pollinator habitat, and encouraging implementation of low impact development,” according to an April 14 news release from the city.

Currently comprising 8 employees, DoERS is headed by Michele Loudenback, who began working for the city in 2017 following an 18-year career at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Loudenback previously served as the city’s environmental and sustainability manager.

Focus on water quality

As part of creating the new division, Norman transferred responsibility for stormwater quality from its Public Works Department to its Utilities Department, though stormwater maintenance remains the purview of Public Works.

The transfer reflects the city’s desire to “have all of our water quality efforts be managed in one department,” says Darrel Pyle, Norman’s city manager. In this way, the city effectively has “one set of eyeballs that recognizes the connectivity of all those things related to One Water,” he says.

From an organizational perspective, DoERS has “equal weight” as the other divisions within the Utilities Department that are regulated by the Oklahoma DEQ, Pyle says. The other divisions oversee water treatment, line maintenance, sanitation, and water reclamation.

Education is key

For her part, Loudenback plans to emphasize efforts to educate the public about water and its importance to their lives. “That’s huge,” Loudenback says. For example, she wants to ensure that Norman residents have a clear picture of where their drinking water comes from and how their day-to-day activities can affect it.

“My goals are to make sure that people do understand that water is one of the most precious resources we have, and it's definitely limited,” Loudenback says. “Anything that we can do to protect it before it makes it to these places like Lake Thunderbird or the aquifers will make it that much cheaper and better and easier for us to treat and for us to drink later.” 

Lake Thunderbird is the reservoir that serves as the main source of drinking water for Norman’s 42,260 water customers. Impaired by sediment and nutrients, Lake Thunderbird is the focus of total maximum daily loads for these pollutants.

Loudenback also plans to emphasize the need for a more holistic understanding of water among Norman’s residents. Among the topics that she wants to focus on is “getting the message out to folks about conservation and about how water is really only one water,” Loudenback says. Educating the public about the benefits of green infrastructure and other practices that can benefit water quality also will be a priority, she says.

To this end, the city maintains a website, greennorman.org, that is dedicated to educating residents about steps they can take to improve the environment. As for other efforts, DoERS will hold workshops and events, including the city’s annual Earth Day celebration. DoERS will conduct some of the events with its sister divisions. For example, DoERS and the city’s Water Treatment division will join forces to promote National Drinking Water Week, which is being held this year from May 7–13.