Photo credit: a resident in the Broken Bow, Ok city limits.

From:
Concerned Citizens of Broken Bow, Ok & McCurtain County

Date: October 12, 2025

 
Our Message

The citizens of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and of McCurtain County are fed up. For months...some of us years...we’ve been living with brown, dirty water running through our homes. We are repeatedly told it’s "high-quality drinking water" and “safe to drink,” yet our eyes, our health, and our ruined laundry say otherwise.

We’ve lost trust in the Broken Bow Public Works Authority and The City of Broken Bow and in every leader and agency that has failed to step in. We’re tired of excuses. We’re tired of gaslighting. We’re tired of being told to be patient while we pay for water that is visibly unsafe. We all learned not to drink dirty water in kindergarten.  

We have been patient for a very long time. We voted for a 1% tax increase in good faith, believing it would improve our city’s water system. Instead, we’ve learned it barely scratches the surface of what’s needed. Meanwhile, our community suffers and our leaders of authority continue to ignore us while they are raking in millions in grants, tax revenue...while our water is getting considerably worse.  

Let me ask everyone reading this petition...would you let your mother, your grandmother, your child, your grandchild drink this water and feel that they are 100% safe in doing so? 

Residents across Broken Bow, Hochatown, and McCurtain County have provided tons of photos of firsthand accounts documenting the severity of this issue. These images show brown, murky water running from faucets, bathtubs, and washing machines...water that stains clothing, our health, and raises serious questions about what we are being told is “safe to drink.” The stories from families, elders, and business owners throughout the county are consistent and alarming. We urge all reviewing agencies and elected officials to examine this evidence directly and acknowledge the undeniable truth it reveals: this is not an isolated or exaggerated concern. It is a widespread, ongoing public health and infrastructure failure that demands immediate attention and independent review. 

We call on every leader and agency addressed in this petition. Especially, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to take this crisis seriously. If the DEQ’s current standards allow water that looks, smells, and behaves like this to be declared “safe,” then those standards are no good for us and must be reevaluated immediately. We will not accept excuses hidden behind outdated regulations or minimal compliance thresholds. Our community deserves water that is truly safe, not technically acceptable. We are demanding decisive leadership, stronger oversight, and modernized standards that protect human health...not bureaucratic convenience.

 
Our Wishes and Demands:

We demand immediate and public action from the Broken Bow Public Works Authority, the City of Broken Bow, the DEQ, and every responsible state and federal office:

1. Conduct an independent, third-party investigation of the Broken Bow water system, including testing for contaminants beyond current DEQ standards.
   Release all findings publicly, in plain language, within 30 days.
2.  Provide a full, transparent accounting of how funds, including the 1% tax, have been spent on infrastructure.
3. Develop and publish a real plan with timelines for fixing the water system, not vague promises or “ongoing studies.”
4. Compensate affected residents for damaged property, clothing, appliances, and health-related costs.
5. Establish immediate and automatic public notification when water quality issues arise. We should not have to beg for information about our own water.

 We refuse to be ignored any longer. We expect swift, transparent, and measurable action...not words. "You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig." 

We Are United! This is not just about dirty water. It’s about trust, health, and accountability.

Our message is simple:

Clean, safe water is not a privilege. It’s our God given right! 

_________________________________________________________________

Fellow Neighbors,

We should be proud of ourselves, as a community, for realizing that we deserve better. It’s not our responsibility to be city water infrastructure experts, yet there are people being paid handsomely to turn their heads while our babies, our elders, our pets, and ourselves are bathing and drinking dirty water. That’s not right...and they know it. Personally, I wouldn’t wish dirty water on my worst enemy, yet these are the same folks who act like they care.

Let’s make clean drinking water our #1 priority in McCurtain County. Our water quality predicts our future.

Here are some questions to consider: UPDATE ****

1. Why does our State Representative, Eddy Dempsey act like our water isn’t dirty and claim it’s “safe to drink”? Does it seem like he's abandoned us when we’ve needed he most? EDIT: George Burns & family called and said that's he's trying to get all of the agencies to address this as soon as possible and his wife says that she wouldn't drink dirty water if it were her. 
   2. Why do our commissioners act as if embezzlement from the wastewater treatment plant isn’t a big deal? They approve their own hours and paychecks every month — who else are they allowing to steal from the citizens of McCurtain County?
   3. Why do we get notices every other week about water line breaks or other issues? What is that telling us? That our infrastructure is failing? Who is ultimately responsible for this chaos?
   4. Why do city, county, and state leaders gaslight citizens while keeping us divided over money and resources? Have they tries pulling fast ones when it comes to our emergency management, hospital, drinking water, our schools, etc?
   5. Why did our governor give Tyson immunity to pollute our waterways?
   6. What will happen if we keep letting the same people stay in office while allowing contamination to continue, all while appearing to serve big industrial corporations over the people of Oklahoma? Does that seem UNOklahoman?
   7. Have our lives improved in the past five years, or have they taken an unhealthy nosedive?
   8. What can we do to help ourselves? Come together? Vote officials out? Let things stay the same and hope everything magically changes? Have we unknowingly allowed this to happen because we trusted the people we voted into office? Can we trust them after all of this?

The answer is clear: it’s up to us!

______________________________________________________________________________

Attention:
Broken Bow Public Works Authority • Broken Bow City Council • Mayor of Broken Bow • McCurtain County Commissioners • Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) • Oklahoma State Department of Health • Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General • Governor Kevin Stitt • Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell • State Representative Eddy Dempsey• State Senator George Burns • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) • Oklahoma Water Resource Board • Any agency with authority over public water safety in Broken Bow, Oklahoma