One day last week, Guymon pumped 5.4 million gallons of water, roughly 92% of its pumping capacity.
If this continues, Michael Shannon, Guymon’s interim city manager, said the city will see mandates to shut water off. He said this is why the Mesa Well Water Project is important.
“Can you imagine living in a community and want to go home tonight and take a shower, and no water?” Shannon said.
Guymon is receiving a more than $17 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help pay for the city’s water project to address scarcity challenges in the area. The grants from the department are through a program to advance siting and permitting transmission projects and support economic development.
For Guymon, this means water infrastructure.
The Ogallala Aquifer is the city’s source of water and its levels have been dropping as producers, residents and industries use the water. Shannon said the water project will provide more potable water for now and the future.
“We have to start to be very good stewards and conserve the water that we have found, or we're going to be in the next 100 years, we'll be in the same boat as we are right now,” Shannon said.
Although the millions of gallons of water pumped are from the area’s current population, it’s expecting more people because of the Three Corner Connector transmission line, which will essentially link eastern and western US energy grids and send power back and forth. It will be about 300 miles long and is aiming to connect southeastern Colorado to Oklahoma’s panhandle.
Shannon said the city found a section of the aquifer with available water and has entered into an agreement to use it.
“We'll be ready for the people that want to come in and produce electricity,” Shannon said.
While the city works on water, a $50 million grant will go toward Guymon Public Schools for a workforce development center and a new junior high school, including a STEM lab and outdoor environmental science classroom.
This comes after the Guymon voters passed a bond to build a new third and fourth grade center.
There are about 450 students in the junior high school and Dixie Purdy, superintendent of the district, said the school system has old buildings that are costly to renovate, and a newer space could help recruit and retain more educators.
Purdy said the district does not currently have the infrastructure in place to make STEM labs or other similar spaces. But with the new development, the district can build it with those ideas in mind.
“You know, here’s what we need and where’s what we can do in that area,” Purdy said. “Build the building around our needs instead of trying to make old buildings built in 1950 work for us and try that.”
In the panhandle, there are a couple secondary education resources; Oklahoma Panhandle State University and High Plains Technology Center in Woodward, which recently expanded its district into Beaver County.
But Guymon Public Schools is not associated with a Career Tech center because it’s in Texas County.
“So, for us, we do not have access to some of those programs that most other places in the state have access to,” Purdy said.
There have been initiatives to start a Career Tech in the area, but she said most of them stalled out. Purdy said the school system does what it can to help the surrounding area’s workforce, for instance, it offers a firefighter certification.
The district is trying to build its own programs for the students and surrounding community. For Purdy, this could also include offering more bilingual support.
“You know, my personal belief is that the more we can educate the general population in the community, the better it is for the entire community,” Purdy said.
