Leaking wastewater treatment plant in Oklahoma County
The Bluff Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant handles sewage from Bethany and Warr Acres, but the facility is located just west of Edmond. The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is investigating what caused the plant to leak sewage into the creek.
Until the Bethany/Warr Acres utility can address the issue, it’s using temporary pipes to divert its waste to an Oklahoma City treatment plant less than a mile away. Shellie Chard with the DEQ says it’s unclear how long cleanup and repairs might take.
“Oklahoma City has said that they will allow the emergency connection as long as needed-but of course, this can't be a years-long kind of thing.”
That solution hit a hiccup over the weekend when the temporary pipes carrying sewage to the Oklahoma City plant sprang a leak. But Chard says it didn’t pollute any waterways. It’s now under control.
Higher education institutions deal with TikTok ban
Governor Kevin Stitt issued an executive order banning the use of the TikTok App on all state-owned electronic devices with internet connectivity last week. Since then, agencies have scrambled to figure out how to handle it.
Cameron University’s Senior Director of Public Affairs Keith Mitchell says his school has been trying to figure out what to do since the order came out.
"...And there’s always a question as to how state agencies that term, apply to higher education.”
Cameron University deleted their primary TikTok account Tuesday morning and different units on campus are in the process of deleting the app.
Cameron isn’t the only school taking action. Northeastern State University in Tahlequah has also told employees to delete the account on devices associated with state work.
Mexican consulate to open in Oklahoma
Governor Kevin Stitt announced on Tuesday a Mexican consulate is scheduled to open in Oklahoma City in spring 2023.
Stitt says the consulate will provide assistance to the state’s growing Mexican population and promote relations between Oklahoma and Mexico.
Mexican diplomat Consul Edurne Pineda has been appointed as Head Consul. This follows tentative plans to open a Mexican consulate last year being pushed back due to leadership and location changes.
Currently, Mexican immigrants living in Oklahoma rely on the consulates in Arkansas and Missouri to get access to services like passport renewals and birth certificate attainment.
Tulsa Representative hopes to repeal state gun ordinance
Tulsa’s Democratic state representative Monroe Nichols wants to repeal the state’s preemption law, which prohibits local governments in Oklahoma from enacting stricter gun restrictions than at the state level.
“We want Tulsa to decide what we will allow folks to carry in our community because we have, you know, some major population centers, and somebody could do a lot of damage in a short amount of time just because we have a lot of folks who are all close to each other.”
Republican state representative Justin Humphrey said he disagrees with repealing the preemption law because he believes people throughout Oklahoma should have the same gun rights.
EMSA record cases
The Oklahoma County area set a record for ambulance calls last week. That follows a trend — with calls spiking this year.
EMSA administers ambulance services across the state. The organization issued a release saying its western division broke its one-day call record on Dec. 9. It responded to 447 calls that day, breaking its 2013 record. That was set after an EF5 tornado struck the area in May of that year.
The release says the division’s calls are up 11 percent for the first five months of this fiscal year. Statewide, numbers are surging too.
"We usually predict a 1-3% increase year over year, and right now, we’re looking at between 6 and 7. Which, you know, doesn’t seem like a lot. But for a system of our size, it is a very, very drastic increase," said EMSA spokesman Adam Paluka.
EMSA serves about 1 million Oklahomans, mostly in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas. It’s unclear why the call numbers have been rising, but the area has seen a large outbreak of both respiratory syncytial virus and the flu.
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