Water

Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan Update

See website for more information: http://environ.okstate.edu/owrri/waterplan/

Anyone may sign-up for electronic updates online as well.

The Sierra Club Perspective on Oklahoma's Water Resources

Oklahoma's water resources may be adequate to provide for the needs of Oklahoma citizens now and in the future, but only if these resources are

managed properly. The Oklahoma Sierra Club wants to ensure that water quality, as well as quantity, is adequate to support all present designated beneficial uses. Public and private water supplies, recreation, plants, fish and wildlife, municipalities, industrial uses, irrigation and aesthetics all benefit from clean water protections.

Our water resources must be protected for future generations, for the ecological sustainability of watersheds and for the public right to sufficient quantities of affordable, clean drinking water.  Furthermore public access to clean drinking water should be recognized as a basic human right that should not be abridged by privatization of water supply systems.

In years past, the public concern was to protect access to rivers for navigation and fishing. To protect these rights, navigable waterways and shorelines were held in the public trust. Today the public right to sufficient quantities of clean water must be given equal stature.

Oklahoma's current outdated water plan fails to:

1)  protect beneficial uses other than for drinking water (such as fish and wildlife);

2)  adequately reserve water sufficient to meet all present beneficial uses and preserve water quality;

3)  adequately address groundwater or the interaction between surface water and groundwater resources; and

4)  provide for future generations.

The Oklahoma Sierra Club requested a new plan with public participation at every level over five years ago, and continues to support and promote the development of a new comprehensive water plan based on sound scientific principles and comprehensive data collection. We appreciate the efforts now underway by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and OSU’s Water Research Institute.  Technical studies for the water plan are taking place at the same time as the public participation portion.

We recommend the new comprehensive water plan for Oklahoma should consider the following principles:

1. End Groundwater Mining

Current Oklahoma law allows OWRB to issue groundwater use permits based on an assumed 20 year lifetime for the aquifer. This is completely unsustainable. Allowing groundwater to be used up within 20 years is short-sighted and short-changes future generations. Groundwater allocations should be limited to a perpetually-sustainable amount.

2. Preserve Instream Flows

Minimum flows in streams are necessary to support a healthy aquatic community and provide ecological benefits. A mechanism to determine the minimum flow amount and to ensure that it is available must be developed.

3. Recognize the interaction between surface and ground water

Streams, lakes and other surface water sources are inextricable linked to groundwater aquifers. This link is not currently recognized in Oklahoma law. Landowners are free to pump groundwater from alluvial aquifers until streams run dry. Mining companies are free to excavate large pits to a level below the groundwater level and then remove as much as they want.

4. Avoid Large-scale Water Transfers

The necessity of large water imports to an area is a significant indicator that local carrying capacity has been exceeded. These transfers may not be sustainable in the long run. Dependency on water transfers should be avoided.

5. End Private Ownership of Groundwater

Under current law, groundwater is owned by the landowner, unlike stream water which is owned by the public. Water is too precious a resource to be subject to the whims of private ownership and should be held as a public trust.

In addition, Sierra Club feels the public must also be educated about the need for water conservation. Sound water use practices reduce the amount of stress that is placed on our existing water resources, both by limiting water withdrawals and by decreasing wastewater discharges. Conserving water reduces wear and tear on major infrastructure such as water and wastewater treatment plants and the distribution systems that deliver water to consumers, and can postpone or eliminate the need for making major investments in new infrastructure.