Foss reservoir master conservancy district (MCD), located in custer county, oklahoma, is an integral water provider in west-central oklahoma serving member cities clinton, cordell, hobart and bessie

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded $30.34 million to Foss Reservoir Master Conservancy District on September 1, 2025, under the Water Recycling and Desalination Construction Programs (CFDA 15.504) to rehabilitate and upgrade the Foss Water Treatment Plant (WTP) serving Clinton, Cordell, Hobart, and Bessie in west-central Oklahoma. The project will replace the existing solids contact clarifier with a new dissolved air flotation (DAF) process and implement ultraviolet (UV) disinfection technology to address the reservoir's unusually high total dissolved solids (TDS) content and mitigate disinfection by-products (DBPs) while providing cryptosporidium and giardia inactivation. Associated infrastructure upgrades will establish critical system redundancy for the first time and increase overall plant capacity from 1.8 million gallons per day (MGD) to 2.3 MGD.

The rehabilitation project addresses the aging infrastructure and reliability challenges of the Foss Reservoir system, a 1962 Bureau of Reclamation federal project, by increasing firm capacity—the plant's operational capacity with the largest unit out of service—from 0 MGD to 1.5 MGD, well within the district's 1.41 MGD contractual obligation. The project will enable full plant redundancy and operational flexibility during maintenance, drought episodes, and high-demand periods while producing an additional 506 acre-feet per year of water supply for the region. The award has a completion date of November 30, 2027.

The MCD faces significant water-related challenges due to aging infrastructure and the absence of redundancy and subsequent reliability at the foss water treatment plant (WTP). Further complicating the reliability of the system in the near future are increasing demands from users, frequent drought and the anticipated impacts of climate change. Foss reservoir is a federal project of the U.S. Bureau of reclamation that was constructed in 1962.the foss MCD drinking water pretreatment rehabilitation project will facilitate crucial upgrades to the WTP. The plant currently uses an inefficient solids contact clarifier (SCC) for primary treatment of the reservoirs water, which is unusually high in total dissolved solids (TDS). A new dissolved air flotation (DAF) process and appurtenant infrastructure upgrades will establish essential system redundancy for the first time and significantly increase the plants efficiency and reliability. The rehabilitated infrastructure will also mitigate the formation of harmful disinfection by-products (DBPS) through ultraviolet (UV) disinfection for cryptosporidium and giardia inactivation. The project will increase the plants total capacity from approximately 1.8 MGD to 2.3 MGD. Most importantly, however, the wtps essential firm capacity that is, its capacity with the largest unit out of service, which is currently 0 MGD due to the lack of redundancy will increase to 1.5 MGD, which is well within the mcds total contractual obligation of 1.41 MGD. Full plant redundancy and improved flexibility will allow the MCD to serve users during required maintenance, drought episodes and other high demand periods. Importantly, the project will enable the production of an additional 506 acre-feet per year (AFY) of water for the region on a total capacity basis and 1,688 AFY on a firm capacity basis