The crippling five-year drought Oklahoma finally broke out of in 2015 is still fresh in the memory of the state’s water regulators, which is looking for ways the state can better withstand future dry spells. The Water Resources Board this week approved new rules to allow water to be stored underground, in aquifers.
J.D. Strong has been an influential leaderin Oklahoma water issues for many years, and served as Executive Director of the state water regulator since 2010. Earlier this year he left the Water Resources Board to head the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
StateImpact talked to Strong in his new office to talk about the water challenges that remain and the issues facing wildlife conservation that are now his problem.
Jan 24, 2019 - Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Fiscal and Organization Strategy. Julie Cunningham. Executive Director. Natural Resources. Make a note and get problems fixed to save water all year long. Visit our Water Conservation Video Series for simple solutions to common irrigation problems. Save even more. Thinking about redesigning your landscape? Add water-wise and Oklahoma native.
One of Oklahoma's top water officials will have a new job a little less than a month from now.
J.D. Strong will become the state Department of Wildlife Conservation’s executive director after six years leading the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
He’ll transition in October after the Governor’s Water Conference is over, The Journal Record’s Dale Denwalt reports:
Oklahoma’s four primary environmental agencies have lost more than $15 million in state appropriations and tens of millions of dollars in legislatively directed reductions to revolving funds, OETA reports.
State Rep. Brian Renegar, D-McAlester, and three of his House colleagues on Monday wrote a letter to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt asking for his opinion on whether it’s legal for members of the state Water Resources Board to stay on the OWRB even after their positions have been eliminated.
Renegar wrote on behalf of Representatives Donnie Condit, Ed Cannaday, and Johnny Tadlock, all from southeast Oklahoma:
Southeast Oklahoma has many of the state’s largest lakes and rivers and much of the state’s water, but no one from the area serves on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the state’s water regulator. A 2013 law requires the area to have representation. But, so far, that hasn’t happened.
Water But No Rep
After months of deliberation and closed-door meetings, lawmakers in the Oklahoma House and Senate are poised to cut a deal to fill a $1.3 billion shortfall and fund government for 2017.
The $6.8 billion presumptive budget agreement has been praised for preserving money for education, prisons and Medicaid, but some of the sharpest cuts are aimed at agencies that regulate industry and protect the environment.
It costs a lot of money to clean, transport and dispose of water. Big cities can spread the cost of multi-million dollar sewer or treatment projects across thousands of customers. But many small Oklahoma towns don’t have that option, and often rely on a state-funded grant program that’s being squeezed by budget cuts.
Crumbling Infrastructure
Water contaminated by algae blooms or choked by sediment and pollutants kills wildlife and isn’t healthy for humans. It’s up to the state to make sure Oklahoma’s lakes and rivers are safe, but budget cuts are threatening that mission, officials say.
Water Funding Roller Coaster
![Board Board](https://www.owrb.ok.gov/2060/images/Waterfor2060.png)
Oklahoma's economy runs on oil. The energy industry drives 1 in 5 jobs and is tied to almost every type of tax source, so falling oil prices have rippled into a state budget crisis.
Crude oil prices have dropped more than 70 percent, and that's created problems across government agencies in Oklahoma. Jason Murphy is a project coordinator for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. He slides on a pair of waders, unspools a sensor probe and splashes into the frigid Canadian River east of Oklahoma City.
The 36th annual Oklahoma Governor’s Water Conference in Norman included the usual fare: updates on regional water plans, drought mitigation, and experts from other states sharing their water insights. But Gov. Mary Fallin came with a new idea to save water — and reduce earthquakes.
Oklahoma County District Judge Barbara Swinton on Wednesday ordered the long disputed limits on how much water can be taken from one of the state’s most sensitive aquifers — the Arbuckle-Simpson in south-central Oklahoma — to go forward.
The court was hearing an appeal of the limit from groups including the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, Oklahoma Aggregates Association, and mining company TXI — all petitioners in the case.
Almost half of the water used by Oklahomans comes from aquifers, and four years of drought increased that reliance. This year’s record-setting rainfall filled up the state’s lakes, but recharging aquifers doesn’t happen so quickly.
This May already ranks as one of the wettest in state history, and continues to snuff out the four-year drought that dried up cities in southwest Oklahoma. Water rationing helped keep Duncan, Lawton, and Altus afloat, but those cities are now scaling back their water saving mandates.
Praise And Worry
Duncan, Oklahoma has taken some of the worst of the drought these past five years. Stage 5 water rationing is in effect, which means — with few exceptions — a ban on all outside watering.
After 5 years of drought, Oklahoma’s dwindling water resources have the attention of state lawmakers. There are competing bills to study moving waterfrom southeast Oklahoma to the Altus area, and to encourage self-sufficient,regionally based plans to meet future water needs.
The U.S. Drought Monitor says more than 1.8 million Oklahomans are being affected by an ongoing, deepening drought.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board says that in the past month, the percentage of Oklahoma classified as being in exceptional drought has decreased slightly, but more than 60% of the state still remains classified in moderate drought or worse.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the terms of a plan to further study the Upper Red River Basin as part of the Water SMART Basin Studies Program.
The study, which has an estimated cost of approximately $1.4 million, will help Oklahoma’s southwest corner find ways to best conserve and manage the water they draw from the Upper Red River Basin. Southwest Oklahoma, Planning and Management Division Chief Julie Cunningham said, has been the region most affected by recent drought conditions in the state.
Explore Oklahoma’s dams with StateImpact’s interactive map detailing their age, type, owner, hazard classification and reported failures.
Oklahoma has the fifth-largest dam inventory in the United States. Ownership of the 4,700 dams is largely split between government agencies and private entities, including individual owners and other organizations like homeowner’s associations.
Oklahoma has nearly 5,000 dams, more than most other states. When they were built, they were classified based on the risk their failure would pose to people and property.
But for many dams, it’s been decades since that risk was evaluated, and the potential hazard has changed because Oklahoma has changed. There are houses, roads and people where there weren’t before.
Pages
Link to: Oklahoma Water Resources Board Groundwater Information
NGWMN Contact:
Mark Belden
(405) 530-8950
The Oklahoma Water Resources Boards' (OWRB) goal is to manage and improve water resources in Oklahoma. Duties and responsibilites related to groundwater include; water us appropriation and permitting, water-quality monitoring and standards, water supply planning, technical studies and research, and water resource mapping. The OWRB has been monitoring water-levels in groundwater annually since the 1950s. In 2013 the OWRB began it Groundwater Monitoring and Assessment Program (GMAP). GMAP includes water-quality sampling and water-level measurements to characterize both the ambient quality and quality of the state's major aquifers. About half of the GMAP water-level sites are measured multiple times annually to address changes over time. Many of these wells are equipped with water-level data loggers. The OWRB began participation with the NGWMN in 2015.
Principal aquifers monitored are the Ada Vamoosa aquifer, Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, Blaine aquifer, Central Oklahoma aquifer, High Plains aquifer, Rush Springs aquifer, Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, Rush Springs aquifer, and Alluvial aquifers.
NGWMN Products:
NGWMN Projects
2015: 1/1/2016 to 12/31/2016
Initial Project to become new NGWMN data provider.
2016 Rou10/30/20181/2016 to 10/30/2018
Project is to complete tasks to become a NGWMN data provider, support persistent data services, and well drilling. Their initial project involved setting up web services for only their water-level data. This project will complete the new data provider work by adding Lithology and well construction web services and completing the classification of sites. Two years of persistent data support is also provided. Four wells will be drilled to fill gaps in the Ozark Plateaus aquifer.
2018: 9/1/2018 to 8/31/2020
This is a two-year project to expand their data services, provide persistent data services, do site information gap filling, and perform well maintenance. They will be setting up new web services to serve water-quality data and discrete water-level data. They will be doing downhole camera work to evaluation well casing/screen conditions and doing slug tests to determine connectivity between the well and the aquifer.
NGWMN presentations
December 2016 presentation to SOGW