By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
Richland Road is a gravel road south of the intersection of Northwest Expressway and NW 150 just southwest of Piedmont in unincorporated Canadian County.
About a dozen homes are on semi-rural acreages. A newly built home by Crabtree Homes is for sale on the corner of Richland and Gordon Way.
Since the homes were built, some residents have lived on water supplied by the City of Piedmont, water that Piedmont purchases from Oklahoma City. Gordon’s Hollow is just west of the Oklahoma City western border at Richland Road. One newly built home for sale is on its own water well and won’t be involved in the ongoing issues.
Now residents of the housing addition just outside of Piedmont’s city limits are wondering if their water could be cut off, and several attended the city council this week to talk about an ongoing water issue.
The Piedmont Municipal Authority and Gordon’s Hollow have received consent orders from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. The orders cite violation of permitting requirements and an unpermitted connection between the City of Piedmont and Gordon’s Hollow. A DEQ inspector investigated the connection in July 2024, the consent order issued to the Piedmont Municipal Authority filed on Jan. 16, 2025 reads. The consent order reports that state DEQ officials and Piedmont’s city attorney have met and the parties involved agreed to resolve the issue promptly and by an agreement.
If the connection is not in compliance by July 1, 2025 the City of Piedmont could face up to $10,000 a day fines, the consent order for Piedmont reads.
The consent order issued to the Gordon’s Hollow Homeowners Association Jan. 13, 2025 reports that the connection for Piedmont water for the homes has not been permitted with a proper license and it must be monitored with a certified operator, the consent order reads. The system disinfectant residuals must be checked weekly, the consent order reads.
A permit is required for all public water systems or extensions of the distribution system, the consent order issued to Gordon’s HOA reads. The Gordon’s HOA could also face fines of up to $10,000 a day if all plans and procedures are not performed or completed by July 1, 2025.
Meanwhile, Gordon’s Hollow residents say they are billed for their water usage by their homeowner’s association. Their water bills go through their homeowners’ association where they live just southwest of Piedmont City limits. The housing addition water source is from the City of Piedmont. Water is sold to the housing addition, where customers are reportedly billed for usage.
City council members have discussed and considered options concerning the issue of water sold outside of city limits. Piedmont has recently been awarded a $22.65 million loan for improvements to be made to their water system but have depended entirely on purchasing water from Oklahoma City.
An online advertisement for homes in Gordon’s Hollow lists the base lot prices as $55,000 with acreages with prices starting for homes at $200 per square foot. There is propane, septic and city and well water available. The asking price on the home is above $500,000.
A resident asked council members, meeting at the Piedmont Municipal Authority, Monday night, Feb. 24, whether their water could be shut off or not.
Mayor Kurt Mayabb said he did not think the water could be shut off.
The Piedmont Municipal Authority members called an executive session to discuss the ongoing issues but took no action afterward.
“We’re trying to understand details of what’s going on and then what we were all sent with the consent order and what does that mean for us in Gordon’s Hollow. So, we’re just trying to understand the situation better and moving forward. What are we looking at,” the Gordon’s Hollow resident told the authority members.
Mayabb replied, “So are we.”
“So, there is a lot there that we don’t know as well,” Mayabb said.
The issue first came up three years ago.
Sale of City of Piedmont’s water supply to developers building homes outside of city limits could be tapped out, and such sales of Piedmont water could be restricted to help the city’s needs inside the city limits, Councilman Jonathan Hisey, Ward 4, told the council in January 2022. And a moratorium against sales of water outside city limits should be passed for the second time this century, council members decided.
Hisey in 2022 asked the city staff and city attorney to look into the reasons why the developer for a housing addition being built outside city limits, just southwest of Piedmont, can use city water. The area does not have its own rural water district. Past Piedmont officials approved the water line to connect to the development.
But a moratorium had been passed by the Piedmont City Council in 2003 that prohibited City of Piedmont water from being sold outside city limits unless it was to a home built before 2000, and only to a single-family home where there was no adequate source of water, Hisey said.
Piedmont’s city attorney Daniel McClure explained to the authority at the meeting Monday, Feb. 25 as to what the situation has become.
“Gordon’s Hollow is at this point operating an independent water system. Water from the Piedmont system goes through the waterline that feeds into Gordon’s Hollow and then it is resold to people who live in that community. When the Department of Environmental Quality learned about this issue, that sparked some permanent inspection conversations because when you are an independent water system, you have to follow a certain set of regulatory requirements,” McClure said.
McClure explained that the City of Piedmont has agreed to a consent order as have residents of Gordon’s Hollow. The details of the consent order are being hammered out by the attorneys involved.
“The issues that Gordon’s Hollow may or may not haver are with the DEQ,” McClure said. The city also has to decide how to rectify the problems.
The woman said she has lived in Gordon’s Hollow three years and has not had any communication about the issue from the housing addition HOA.
“Legally can our water be shut off?’ the resident of Gordon’s Hollow asked.
“I would say legally no. My understanding is we have to get to the bottom of it. We have been in communication, tried to be in communication for years. The fact is that there is an illegal water district out there and the city of Piedmont kind of just stood here and said “We need you to correct this,’ and nothing got corrected,” Mayabb said at the Monday meeting.
“DEQ comes to us and says, ‘Hey, you’re gonna correct it now,” Mayabb said.
“We want Gordon’s Hollow to step up to the plate and meet us in the middle,” Mayabb said.
The consent order for Piedmont reads that a solution must be found by July, or the city could face potential fines, McClure said. Details of the consent order were not available this week.
The Gordon’s Hollow resident said, “On our side of the meter we don’t know what is going on. We have no idea how we are being billed,” she said.
She said she has had high bills for water usage as have other neighbors.
“We are just trying to get clarification,” she said.
After meeting in an executive session Monday night, the Piedmont Municipal Authority members took no action and reconvened as the city council.
“We want it right,” Mayabb told Pool. “We are going to get through it. Our discussion tonight is our strategy about what to do to get to July,” Mayabb said. “That is all I can say, stay in tune with us. We have had this on our agenda every month for a while,” Mayabb said.
Read the Piedmont-Surrey Gazette for more coverage of local news issues.
