From railroad stop to boom town
Moore began as a watering stop on the Southern Kansas Railway, laid through the area in 1886 and 1887, and took its name from railroad worker Al Moore before incorporating in 1893, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Old Town Moore, the original grid around Broadway Avenue and Main Street, still marks that start. For most of the next century, Moore stayed a small farm town.
Then it took off. The population jumped from 1,783 in 1960 to 18,761 in 1970 and 35,063 by 1980, as families working at Tinker Air Force Base, in Oklahoma City and in Norman bought new houses here. Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 put the median Moore home at 1987, and about half of the city's roughly 25,000 housing units were built between 1960 and 1989. The 1970s alone account for about one in five. Those houses are now 35 to 65 years old, which is when original water heaters, supply lines, cast-iron drains and sewer laterals start asking for attention.
Tornado rebuilds: newer plumbing on older lots
Two violent tornadoes reset whole neighborhoods. On May 3, 1999, an F5 tornado entered Moore's western city limits and damaged more than 3,000 homes in town, and another tornado followed a similar path on May 9, 2003. On May 20, 2013, an EF5 tornado crossed Santa Fe Avenue, hit businesses along Telephone Road and crossed I-35, and more than 300 homes took EF4 or EF5 damage before it faded near Lake Stanley Draper on the east side, per NWS Norman.
About 39 percent of Moore's housing was built in 2000 or later. Rebuilt houses usually have PEX or CPVC supply lines and PVC drains, but a new house can still tie into an older sewer lateral or water service in the yard. Next door, an untouched 1970s home may have every original pipe. That is why we confirm what is in the ground before quoting sewer line repair in Moore or any other buried work.
Moore's water: city wells plus Oklahoma City supply
The Moore Public Works Authority runs the city water system. Its report for 2025 says the water comes from 23 groundwater wells, with additional treated water purchased from Oklahoma City. The wells draw on the Central Oklahoma aquifer, also called the Garber-Wellington, which underlies about 2,890 square miles. USGS research found that shallow wells in the aquifer run higher in calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate, the minerals behind scale, and flagged arsenic, chromium and selenium in parts of it.
The 2025 report lists arsenic, selenium and uranium from natural deposits, and its 90th percentile lead result was zero. In July 2026, Oklahoma DEQ issued a boil order for the part of Moore east of I-35, south of SE 4th Street and north of Indian Hills Road after routine samples found E. coli, then lifted it on July 11. USGS also notes that private domestic wells are not monitored by the state, so anyone on a well near the edge of town has to test it themselves.
Clay soil, the Little River and fast rain
Moore sits on the clay-rich soil found across central Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Geological Survey notes that over 75 percent of the state has bedrock that can produce expansive soils, and that saturation from rain, lawn watering or sewer leaks can cause major damage. Slabs and buried pipe here move with the seasons, which is a big reason slab leak repair in Moore is a steady need.
Water moves fast, too. Little River Park had suffered years of flooding and erosion before the 2013 tornado damaged it, and the area flooded again in 2015, according to the engineers who later built a regional flood control system there. Over Easter weekend in 2025, the closest gauge caught nearly five inches of rain in about 90 minutes, and water ran across Eastern Avenue. Rain like that can overload sewer lines and push water back up through low drains.
Freezes, permits and licensing
Winter arrives in sharp bursts. On February 16, 2021, Oklahoma City, just north of Moore, hit minus 14°F, its second-lowest temperature on record, per the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. Two days earlier, Oklahoma City, which also sells water to Moore, reported that the cold had affected the treatment system at its Stanley Draper plant and left many of its own customers with low pressure or none.
Moore runs permits through its Planning and Development department, where the Building Permits and Inspections division handles inspections, and an occupancy permit for new construction is issued only after the city planner, building official and fire marshal sign off. Oklahoma's Plumbing License Law of 1955 requires plumbing work to be done under a state license and leaves cities free to set their own plumbing codes and inspections.
