OWRB Plans in-Depth Study for Basin 51

Basin 51 is a “hot spot” in water resources terminology.  This watershed basin includes the area between Yukon and Watonga and is in the crosshairs for water shortage.

EPA Annouces Funding for Municipalities

EPA is providing technical assistance grants to develop an integrated planning approach to meeting Clean Water Act requirements.

Three ACOG Communities Make CWSRF Project Priority List

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) will hold a public meeting to receive comments on the Draft FY 2015 Intended Use (Strategic) Plan and Draft FY 2015-19 Clean Water State Revolving Fund Project Priority List on Thursday, June 5, 2014, at 10:30AM at 3800 North Classen Boulevard, Oklahoma City. To date, 10 proposed projects have been placed on the FY 2015 Fundable portion of the Project Priority List for an anticipated funding amount of nearly $45.5 million. Additional projects may be added or modified throughout the year, as funds are available. Under state law, eligible borrowers include any duly constituted, existing political subdivision of the state including counties, cities, towns, municipalities, sewer districts, public trusts or authorities, and state agencies.

Regional Water Conservation Measures to be Discussed at Water for 2060 Hot Spot Meetings

Oklahoma is getting pretty dry, as the latest drought maps show.  In response to the drought crisis, state water agency officials and planning specialists will hold a series of public meetings to share information and obtain feedback on water conservation strategies that could mitigate projected water shortages in Oklahoma’s most compromised areas – the “hot spots”.

Agriculture producers, water providers, and interested citizens residing in and around these areas—those determined to have the most significant water supply challenges within the next 50 years—will be offered an opportunity to shape actions that could collectively satisfy future water demands and thus avoid substantial water shortages projected in those areas. The meetings, hosted by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, will be held March 11 in Goodwell at the Hughes Strong Auditorium on the Oklahoma Panhandle State University campus, March 12 at the Quartz Mountain Resort (north of Altus), and March 13 in Duncan at the Simmons Center. Each meeting will start at 6 pm.

Oklahoma’s 82 watershed planning basins are likely to experience surface water and/or groundwater deficits by 2060. (A copy of these investigations can be downloaded at: Hot Spot Report). While the magnitude or probability of projected shortages is relatively minor in many areas, each of the dozen Hot Spot basins are facing potentially large and recurring water deficiencies that require more immediate attention. “In 2006, when we initiated the Water Plan update, our overriding goal was to meet the long-term water needs of every Oklahoman,” says J.D. Strong, OWRB Executive Director. “If we can address the looming water supply problems of those citizens and water users at greatest risk—those residing in identified Hot Spots—then we can certainly implement effective strategies wherever water challenges exist in Oklahoma.”

With the Legislature’s passage of the Water for 2060 Act in 2012—prompted by a priority recommendation of the most recent OCWP update—Oklahoma has become the first state in the nation to establish a statewide goal of consuming no more fresh water in 2060 than is consumed today. To meet this ambitious goal, the Water for 2060 Advisory Council was convened in 2013 to begin formulating conservation practices, incentives, and educational programs that could accordingly moderate statewide water usage. The OWRB, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and their contractors support the work of the Advisory Council while conducting more intensive investigations of conservation strategies proposed by the OCWP.

For more information, contact John Harrington at jharrington@acogok.org.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum hosts water education seminar

Thanks to a generous grant provided by the Coca-Cola Foundation, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is conducting a water and land issues symposium every Friday in March 2014. The program titled Surviving the Elements: Land & Water Issues of the West aims to increase awareness of such issues in the American West, by focusing on stewardship and conservation.

The educational program series is focusing on the ranching, farming, agri-business sectors with real stories and discussions on such topics as land and pasture management, water usage, conservation measures, herd management, new resource preservation and enhancement strategies. The Museum aims to make an impact, be a change agent and facilitate solutions in this important Western industry.  At the center of this conversation will be the four day symposium held in March 2014 featuring world-renowned experts on the topic.

Please encourage your students, clients, customers, advocates, specialists to register and attend this one-of-a-kind event with nationally-recognized keynote speakers (the Coca-Cola grant covers price of admission; a modest $10 fee buys lunch, program collateral…) or sign-up online for streaming video.

For more information and speaker schedule, go to www.survivingtheelements.org.

Oklahoma Water Resources Board Releases Central Oklahoma Aquifer Study

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) in conjunction with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has released the long-anticipated groundwater flow study on the Central Oklahoma aquifer.  The study includes one of the major Oklahoma groundwater basins, the Garber-Wellington aquifer.

ACOG Groundwater Seminar RESCHEDULED to March 13

Due to inclement weather our groundwater seminar has been postponed to a warmer month – March!

ACOG and PEC will host the groundwater seminar on March 13 – at new time and place.  Hopefully we will be pass the prospects of subzero wind chill and icy roads by that time!  For those of you who signed up, please check with Jim Roberts at PEC (James.Roberts@pec1.com) to reconfirm your reservation on March 13.

For those of you who were thinking about signing up, we have moved the venue over to Oklahoma History Center.  So there should be plenty of seats for all!

Nearly half of all water used in Oklahoma is groundwater. Drought, tightening regulations, population growth and increased competition for the same or limited water resources are forcing communities to be more strategic in the management of their existing supplies. The good news is that help is available.

One More Battle in the Texas Water Wars

The annual guessing game for the Supreme Court docket is currently on and one of the cases may cover familiar ground. Although a Supreme Court decision for Oklahoma concerning water was handed down last spring, there is one more water case for Texas that must be sorted out.  This one concerns another neighbor – New Mexico.

In February 2013, Texas filed suit against New Mexico and Colorado in the United States Supreme Court in a battle concerning the Rio Grande Compact.   All of Texas’ claims are based upon alleged wrongful conduct by and in New Mexico. Texas claims that New Mexico is illegally depleting the Rio Grande’s flow before it reaches the New Mexico/Texas state line. Texas claims that New Mexico allows impermissible diversion of surface water from the river and that increased groundwater pumping also depletes the river by causing the surface water to leave the river to recharge connected underground aquifers.  Although Texas does not point to a specific term of the Compact that was violated and does not dispute that New Mexico is delivering the correct amount of water into the Elephant Butte Reservoir, it claims that the “purpose and intent” of the Compact is violated when New Mexico allows water to be diverted prior to delivery into Texas.

In response, New Mexico claims that its only obligation under the Compact is to deliver a certain amount of water into the Elephant Butte Reservoir.  The Compact does not require any specific amount of water be delivered to the Texas/New Mexico state line.  New Mexico claims that what happens between the Reservoir and the Texas state line is governed by New Mexico law and not by the Compact.  New Mexico claims that the wells drilled below the Reservoir are proper as they were drilled based upon water rights that were granted under New Mexico law.

To review the case, go to:http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1-7-13-Texas-v-NM-booklet.pdf

In an illustration of the tensions over this issue, a spokesman for New Mexico Governor, Susana Martinez, has said that New Mexico “will not cede one inch of New Mexico water to Texas.”

If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It

Last week was the annual World Water Week, a global conference hosted and organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). The World Water Week has been the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues since 1991 and is an interesting bell weather indicator of water issues.

A rather resonating statement was made during the Opening Plenary: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Nowhere is this statement truer than with groundwater. Groundwater is complicated. You can’t see it. Groundwater is driven by a complex combination of pressure and gravity, unlike surface water that flows mainly by gravity alone. The complexity of groundwater makes it hard to measure and monitor over large areas.

It is because groundwater is so difficult to measure that it is also so hard to manage.  This is in part why our legal systems tend to split out groundwater from surface water and give groundwater an entirely separate set of rules for governance.  One is reminded of a Texas Supreme Court opinion: “Because the existence, origin, movement and course of such (ground) water, and causes which govern and direct their movements, are so secret, occult and concealed . . . an attempt to administer any set of legal rules in respect to them would be involved in hopeless uncertainty, and would, therefore, be practically impossible.”(Houston & T.C. Ry. Co. v. East 81 S.W. 279 (Tex. Sup. Ct. 1904)).

The Oklahoma legislature finally understands the need to manage groundwater in this state.  Based on the recommendations in the 2012 Comprehensive Water Plan, Oklahoma lawmakers appropriated in March 2013 $1.5 million for a new Groundwater Monitoring and Assessment Program (GMAP). Representing Oklahoma’s first holistic groundwater network, GMAP will collect baseline groundwater level and quality data from wells in Oklahoma’s twenty-one major aquifers.

With programs like GMAP, we will finally start to manage groundwater – by first measuring it.

USGS Studies Reveal Why Drinking Water Wells are Vulnerable to Contamination

All water wells are not created equal.  And not all aquifers are the same.

The risk factor for contamination in water wells is quite variable, as a new USGS study reveals.

Water from nearly one in five public-supply wells in the United States might need to be treated or blended with more dilute water sources to decrease concentrations of drinking-water contaminants before delivery to the public.

Of particular concern is recent evidence that existing water-treatment systems do not effectively remove some contaminants now being found in groundwater. Even when effective water-treatment technologies exist, it is especially difficult for small system operators to implement such technologies because their small customer base might not be able to cover the costs.

The role that water resource development (drilling and pumping of new wells) and well operation play in public-supply-well water quality also has been unclear.

Study-team scientists found that to understand the quality of water pumped from individual public-supply wells one needs to understand the sources of recharge, the geochemical conditions and the groundwater-age mixture of different waters that blend (or mix) in a well.

For the full report, go to: http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1385/