Press Release

OKLAHOMA CITY –The City of Beggs (City) received approval for $1,000,000 in funding Tuesday from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) to improve the City’s infrastructure.  Improvements to the dam will be financed by the Oklahoma American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant program along with a $100,000 Rural Infrastructure Grant (RIG) from Oklahoma Rural Water Association and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

The City’s municipal water supply is served by New Beggs Lake and sells water to Okmulgee Rural Water District No. 2. An extreme rainfall event in May 2022 severely eroded the dam’s downstream slope. These funds will be used to rebuild the downstream slope to address four identified areas of damage, and for remediation of the emergency spillway and receiving stream channel.

Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the City’s customers will save an estimated $1,529,300 compared to traditional financing.