The mayor of Nowata says the city can start using water from the Verdigris River again after service was shut off because of contamination concerns following a chemical plant explosion in Kansas.
Mayor David Lynn says the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality gave the city permission Friday to resume pumping water from the river. A day earlier, water service had been shut off after an explosion and fire Tuesday at the Airosol, Inc., chemical plant in Neodesha, Kansas.
The Verdigris River runs through parts of southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma, through Lake Oologah and into the Arkansas River near Muskogee.
The plant manufactures and packages aerosol, liquid and other specialty chemicals