Statewide Vote to Sell Oklahoma Water
Passes House of Representatives
 

Contact: State Rep. Mike Mass
Capitol: (405) 557-7381
Hartshorne: (918) 297-2595
Source: Oklahoma House of Representatives Media Division

OKLAHOMA CITY (March 6) -- The House of Representatives endorsed legislation Wednesday that would require a statewide vote of the people before any large volume of water from anywhere in Oklahoma could be sold or exported out-of-state.
 

House Joint Resolution 1038 by Rep. Mike Mass, D-Higgins, passed the House in a bipartisan vote, 93-4, and was referred to the Senate.
 

The limitation would extend to any state “board, commission, committee, authority, department or other such agency of this state,” and any elected or appointed “officer, member of any state governing body or other person designated to act for a state agency or in behalf of the state or the Oklahoma Legislature.”
 

Transactions involving eight million gallons per month (equivalent to about one-quarter-million gallons per day) or less “by any one private water owner,” such as a rural water district,would be exempt from the requirement. However, a statewide vote would be required on any transaction in which two or more private water owners joined hands to sell or export a combined total of eight million gallons or more per month.
 

Also exempt would be bottled drinking water “offered for sale for human consumption or for other consumer uses...” Records indicate the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has issued 16 water-use permits over the past 16 years for water bottling operations in 14 counties.
 

Rep. Leonard Sullivan, R-Oklahoma City, a supporter of the measure, noted that thirsty north Texans are eyeing plentiful supplies of southeastern Oklahoma water. Texas wants Oklahoma water so people and industries will flock to the sprawling Dallas metroplex,” he related. “If any industry needs water, make them come to Oklahoma to get it.”
 

In response to a question, Mass said his proposal would affect the sale of groundwater from aquifers such as the vast High Plains Aquifer that sprawls beneath 174,000 square miles in eight states (western Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota), not just surface water from lakes such as Sardis Reservoir in Pushmataha and Latimer counties, or from streams or rivers.
 

Wealthy oilman T. Boone Pickens has been buying water rights to sell the precious commodity, just like wheat, Mass noted.
 

An abundant supply of high-quality water is a key reason why tourism is Oklahoma’s second biggest industry, generating an estimated $3.8 billion for the state’s economy, Mass noted.
 

Rep. Hopper Smith, R-Tulsa, pointed out that sales of other natural resources in Oklahoma, such as oil, coal and natural gas, do not require a vote of the people. Water, unlike oil and gas, is a necessity for life, Mass replied.
 

Advocates also argued that everybody in Oklahoma would be affected by the sale of water and therefore everyone should have an opportunity to vote on it. “You want to sell Oklahoma’s water? Get Oklahomans’ approval,” Mass asserted.