Two Hennessey water department employees were rescued by firefighters and oilfield workers at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Supervisor Alyssa Kubat and Kyle Watkins were rushed by ambulance to an Enid hospital where Watkins was kept and Kubat was released, said Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman Tuesday afternoon.

Tillman updated the KT&FP Wednesday morning and said Watkins is still in the hospital, but “recovering well.”

“Alyssa told me she thought she was going to die,” said Tillman. “Their recovery was a group effort and it really shows how well this team works together.”

The two workers were making repairs at the Reverse Osmosis Water Plant located about four miles southeast of 7th and Main streets. That’s where a waterline buried three feet deep caused water and sand to flood the hole where they were working.

They Were Stuck

That flooding water and sand turned into quicksand and they couldn’t get out, said Hennessey Vice Mayor Harold Shaw.

“Each employee had one foot stuck,” Hennessey Fire Chief Brandon Scott told the KT&FP.

Scott said they got the fire call at midnight and three other town employees who had been onsite when the incident happened were there. They were Sewer Superintendent Bryan Burch and water department employees Troy Watkins and Jamie Keel.

“We were told that LuGreg and TerraStar crews from Kingfisher were on their way,” the fire chief said. “Also, Clay Vincent with Kingfisher County was contacted about bringing a trackhoe to dig a relief hole beside the town’s hole.”

“We tried shoveling and hoisting first,” said the chief, “but it didn’t work.”

Other firefighters on that run were Dustin Munroe, Logan Macy, Levi Copeland, Cris Pribyl and Assistant Chief James Matousek.

Then after Burch and Shaw called out Hennessey’s Choate Oilfield Services, everything changed.

“We got the call at about 1:45 a.m. and Eric Smith was dispatched and took a vacuum truck to the site,” Russ Choate told the KT&FP.

“After they got there, we used the hose to wash the sand away from around the employees’ legs, Choate sucked the sand out and the employees were freed,” said the fire chief.

“Choate’s did a helluva job,” Shaw said, “as well as our fire and ambulance crews.”

He made those comments after a 1 p.m. emergency town trustee meeting.

Tillman told the KT&FP Wednesday morning that she was notified “once it became a situation.”

She said her phone “went to silent mode” early that morning and since they couldn’t get hold of her by phone “they started down the line of the board members; that’s how Harold was notified.”

Emergency Town Meeting

“Water and sand (also) washed under the building, and we can’t get a tractor in there,” Tillman told trustees during the emergency meeting. “It’s washing out part of the building.”

She recommended, and trustees approved in a 5-0 vote, to hire Luckinbill Construction of Enid to make the repairs.

“Right now we’ve had to bypass the plant,” Tillman told trustees. “Customers are getting water now and it is chlorinated,” she said.

“What’s the current nitrate rate?” asked Trustee Bert Gritz.

Tillman said she didn’t know.

Gritz asked because that means there could be a higher rate of nitrates than that allowed by the Department of Environmental Quality.

The town mixes its raw water with water treated at the Reverse Osmosis Water Plant.

Town employees have kept a close watch on the town’s water nitrate counts and the DEQ made an inspection in September.

Tillman said she’d asked the mayor to call the emergency meeting because she assumed the cost would be above the $5,000 she is allowed to OK without their advance approval.

An estimated cost from Luckinbill was not available at the meeting, but Tillman said she doubted it would be more than $20,000.

Trustees decided since the cost wasn’t specific, it wouldn’t be included in their motion because they need the work done quickly.

Water Customers Notified

Water customers were sent “code red” calls and texts at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday about a problem. It reported that a water crew “had worked through the night,” but there were “unexpected delays” in repairs.

Customers had earlier been notified the water would be turned off Monday at 11 p.m. for three or four hours for those repairs.

About the RO Water Plant

In the last few years, the town has made many repairs on the $1.4 million Reverse Osmosis Water Plant that began operations in May 2003. The town borrowed the money on a 20-year low-interest loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

The plant was built after the DEQ issued a consent order that required the town to come up with a plan to reduce nitrates in its drinking water below 10 parts-per-million. There were many Oklahoma small towns that had the same nitrate problem.