Plaques inside Muskogee’s wastewater treatment plant show how well employees worked over the past few years. Included are an outstanding facility award and a top supervisor award from the Oklahoma Water and Pollution Control Association.

Construction pictures dating back to 1911 tell how long the city has been treating city sewage.

After more than 100 years operating the wastewater plant, the city of Muskogee wants to know if a private company could run it more efficiently. The Muskogee City Council voted 5-4 to seek requests for qualifications from prospective private plant operators. Some 28 employees work in the wastewater department, including workers at the plant and on the sewer lines.

City Manager Greg Buckley said the council’s vote “opens up an opportunity to evaluate how we operate.”

However, officials with Muskogee’s municipal employees’ union worry the proposal could cost some employees their jobs — and fewer employees would affect the plant’s ability to treat wastewater.  

JoLynn Pierce, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said she has met with an advocacy group concerned about the growing trend to privatize city services.

“When a contractor takes over operation of a water or sewer plant, a lot of claims of efficiency come when jobs are cut. And when jobs are cut service declines,” said Emily Worth, water program director with the Washington, D.C., advocacy group Food and Water Watch.

The advocacy group, an outgrowth of Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen group, issued a report in 2010 detailing issues surrounding privatization of public water and wastewater facilities. Worth said that often “one third of jobs are lost” under private management.

“And benefits decline for the workers,” Worth said.

Buckley said the proposal to seek requests for qualifications is a way to target possible methods of improving efficiency. A city council agenda packet said potential goals could be to streamline operations and capital expenses and remove the city’s daily burden of operating the system.

“We can see how what we’re doing compares with what others are doing,” Buckley said. “We might see that we’re doing as good or better than everyone else. We might get some ideas on how we could operate better.”

Buckley said he met representatives of Severn Trent Environmental Services when they were manning a vendor booth at a recent conference. Severn Trent is a supplier of water and wastewater treatment solutions, based in Fort Washington, Pa., with office locations around the world.

“I picked up some pamphlets and talked with them at the conference,” he said. “I asked what can Severn do that we can’t do.”

Buckley said he has picked up information from several companies over time and is not favoring a particular operator.

“There are several companies out there,” he said. “Some are very broad, others can do just one thing.”

Severn Trent Marketing Manager Eric Risch said the company manages wastewater systems in seven Oklahoma cities: Mustang, Hugo, Claremore, Clinton, Jenks, Glenpool and Chickasha. The company also operates water systems in Chickasha, Clinton, Claremore, Hugo and Mustang.

“Services provided vary with each community,” Risch said. “In some situations, we are responsible for collections systems and treatment plant operations and maintenance. In others, just the treatment plant operation and maintenance.

In most partnerships, the status of current employees is taken into account, Risch said. “Employees are transitioned into the company with equal or better wages and benefits, often as stipulated in a contract.”

Protecting plant workers’ jobs was a top concern expressed at Monday’s City Council meeting.

 “I’ve spent 33 years with the city, you think about everything I put into this job,” said plant worker Clifton Stewart. “I’m 53 years old. What you decide to do, do it from your heart.”

Vice Mayor Robert Perkins, who favored seeking the request for qualifications, said, “Whatever we do, it would anger me if anyone were let go.”

Clinton Public Works Director Arnold Adams said Severn Trent has operated Clinton’s water and wastewater systems since July 1.

“They kept everyone we had,” Adams said. “They hired all the employees and they agreed to meet the employees’ benefit package or better.”

He said the city needed help to comply with mandates of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

“And we put out requests for proposals to several companies,” Adams said. “Our sewer plant was running at 100 percent capacity, and we thought we would need their expertise.”

He said the plant now runs at 60 percent capacity.

Chickasha’s plant has been under some sort of private management for more than 30 years, said Chickasha Public Works Director Larry Fuchs. “Someone comes along and buys the company out, and another comes along and buys them out.”

Fuchs said the city was on the verge of being fined by the Oklahoma Health Department before the city first went with private management in 1980.

“And we have not been fined since,” Fuchs said. “We’ve got a good relationship. They have some expertise. If there is a problem that needs addressing, they address it.”

The city also received several commendations from the Environmental Protection Agency, he said.

Fuchs said the city’s water service department had three employees when it first went under private management. He said that when the private managers came in “the plant engineer said it needed nine employees.”

Glenpool City Manager Ed Tinker said private management offers the city expertise it otherwise could not afford. The city has been with Severn Trent for about six months.

“We need a mechanical engineer, an environmental engineer and an architectural engineer,” Tinker said, adding that the company makes such engineers available to cities when they’re needed.

Tim Ward, assistant division director for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality said the agency has no hard data on whether privately managed wastewater plants fare better or worse than publicly run plants.

“We don’t regulate who operates the facilities, we regulate the plant operations,” Ward said.

He said three major companies have most of the operations in Oklahoma: Severn Trent, Veolia and American Water.

“Some cities have privately run wastewater and publicly run water, some have publicly run wastewater and public water,” Ward said.

Buckley said the city has no plans to seek private management of any other city operations. He said the city occasionally gets calls from companies interested in doing trash collection.

“We tell them, ‘At this time, we’re operating that with the city of Muskogee, but are not asking for proposals,’” he said. “I think we sort of take one piece at a time. It’s not that we’re out seeking proposals. We’re looking at how we can improve.”

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding @muskogeephoenix.com.