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August 20, 2012

Old Oklahoma water plant converted for modern use

By KIRBY LEE DAVIS Journal Record (AP)

TULSA, Okla. — Around a lonely corner of Mohawk Boulevard, just below the crest wall of Lake Yahola, rest six brick-and-concrete buildings garnished with numerous Art Deco flourishes.

But for the plaza fountain at the entryway, the complex offers Tulsans something of a step back in time, to when much of the city’s commercial district consisted of such one- and two-story red brick edifices.

But while these walls stand pretty much as they first appeared in the Roaring 20s, their interiors are now far drier and human-friendly. For these structures originally just five brick buildings and a huge copper holding tank encased in brick were designed to move and clean the water Tulsans drank, bathed in, and sprayed across their cars and lawns.

The Mohawk Water Treatment Plant opened as part of the $7.5 million Spavinaw Dam and watershed project, the primary source of Tulsa’s water since its 1924 debut. That engineering marvel came from the head of The Benham Group founder William Rea Holway. Overcoming political and racial battles, he devised and produced a gravity-flow system for delivering millions of gallons daily across more than 50 miles of pipes.

Lake Yahola served as the final resting place before treatment, sitting just outside the 3600 E. Mohawk Blvd. plant. Holway again used gravity to move water from Yahola to a series of basins, filters and clarifiers, some sitting under the sun, others indoors. During times of heavy usage, a low-lift building augmented the gravity flow by drawing water from the bottom of the lake to feed the basins. The Mohawk plant then used a pair of steam turbines fired by natural gas boilers to supply Tulsa up to 100 million gallons of clean water daily.

“It was state-of-the-art, because there was no art before that,” said Tulsa Water Supply Manager Robert Brownwood, citing the era’s pioneering efforts at water purification.

Aided by a 1956 upgrade, the Mohawk plant served Tulsa’s needs for four decades.

In 1974 the city augmented its output with the A.B. Jewell Water Treatment Plant, a 20-million-gallon-capacity complex that in 1982 was expanded to 90 million. It now can handle up to 120 million daily.

City leaders moved to replace the original Mohawk plant after a 1992 leak flooded one building. Six years later, a new 100-million-gallon treatment system opened on the hill above the plant, its cost more than $80 million.

“This plant isn’t any bigger than the other one,” Plant Superintendent Warren Williams said. “It’s just much easier to operate.”

The 1920s buildings were converted into plant offices, meeting areas and classrooms. The low-lift building became a visitors center and water treatment museum, displaying one of its original pumps. The roundhouse copper tank was adapted into a storage building.

“A lot of the stonework of the old plant was carefully moved and taken to some place in Kansas, where they cleaned it and installed it back here,” said Williams, who will start his 29th year at Mohawk in September. “You can see it all around here.”

With the high quality of concrete construction from Tulsa’s “black gold” era, and the city’s careful maintenance and renovations, Brownwood said the Mohawk campus could endure many years to come.

“Some of these concrete walls are in the neighborhood of 5 feet thick,” said Williams, in a reference to their original coal boilers. “They built the thing to withstand a coal explosion.”

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