Joint Legislative Water Committee
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Mike Thralls, Executive Director 1 Bottom Line — Districts & Commission need Legislative support and Funding to:
•Maintain and develop the state’s flood control infrastructure.
•Conserve, protect and restore land and water resources.
•Monitor nonpoint source water quality (previously 100% federally funded) 2 Oklahoma Land Use
•97% Privately Owned
•80% in Agriculture
•17% in Forests
Total area of the state: 43,954,560 acres.
State or federally owned: 1,006,000 acres or 2.29%
35,100,000 acres in agriculture
Almost 10,000,000 acres in forest, 6% of which is public land 3 Small Watershed Upstream Flood Control Dams
•Oklahoma leads the nation with 2,107 upstream flood control dams constructed under the USDA Watershed Program.
•Oklahoma’s conservation districts are primary watershed project sponsors.
•There are 129 watershed projects in 64 counties with dams in 121 watersheds in 61 counties.
•The dams provide $81 million in annual estimated benefits from reduced flood damages and other benefits.
Sallisaw 18M Lake
4 Sugar Creek L-44 August 2007 5 Sugar Creek L-44 August 2007
6 Sugar Creek L-43 August 2007 7 Sugar Creek L-43 August 2007 8 Water Plan Recommendations
Dam Safety & Floodplain Management
•“State-mandated requirements demand approximately $457 million to upgrade flood control dams to meet high-hazard criteria due to unregulated downstream development.” 9 Water Plan Recommendations
Dam Safety & Floodplain Management
•“Flood control dams are in need of maintenance estimated at $22 million to be in compliance with legally binding federal operation and maintenance requirements.” 10 Water Plan Recommendations
Dam Safety & Floodplain Management
•“Provide $12 million in funding and support to the OCC to perform dam breach inundation mapping, emergency action planning, and education and outreach efforts that supports dam safety for NRCS flood control dams.”
11 Water Plan Recommendations
Dam Safety & Floodplain Management
•“Identify a mechanism to remove liability for dam owners for downstream development occurring after an NRCS flood control dam was constructed.”
12 Multi-Purpose Lakes
Of the 2,107 Small Watershed Upstream Flood Control lakes in Oklahoma, 42 are multipurpose lakes. In addition to flood control and wildlife habitat benefits, they serve as municipal or rural water supply or recreational areas.
Wes Watkins Lake 298 of the dams yet to be rehabilitated could be developed into viable water supply sources. 13 Multi-Purpose Lakes
Sallisaw 18 (Stilwell Reservoir - Stilwell)
Spring Creek 1 (Lake Chickasha – Chickasha)
Cherokee Sandy 17M (R.C. Longmire Lake – Pauls Valley)
Caddo 13 (Lake Jean Neustadt - Ardmore)
Caddo 18 (Lake Scott King - Ardmore)
Fourche Maline 7(Lake Church - Wilburton)
Kickapoo Nations 1M (Bell Cow Lake - Chandler)
Quapaw 15 (Meeker Lake - Meeker)
Quapaw 1 (Sparks Reservoir - Sparks)
Robinson 4M (Prague City Lake - Prague)
Stillwater 40 (Lake McMurtry - Perry)
Wildhorse 22 (Lake Humpreys - Duncan)
Okfuskee Tribs S-1 (Dripping Springs Lake - Okmulgee)
Finn 34 (Wiley Post Lake - Maysville)
Deep Red Run (Frederick City Lake - Frederick)
Lower Black Bear 19M (Lake Lone Chimney – Primary for Glencoe, Morrison, Yale, Blackburn, Skedee, Maramac and Terlton. 40% of water for Cleveland and Pawnee.)
Sallisaw 18M Lake 14 Oklahoma Conservation Efforts Address Water Quality and Water Quantity Through Efforts…
•Locally-Led
•Cooperative
•Voluntary
15 Water Plan Recommendations
Source Water Protection
“Avoiding pollution to sources
of water is much more
cost-effective than mitigating
resulting impacts. The OCC develops watershed protection and restoration plans to identify potential pollution sources in the watershed of water supply reservoirs and works with local landowners to minimize associated impacts.” 16
Watershed-Based Plan Oklahoma Conservation Efforts Address Water Quality and Water Quantity Through…
•Locally-Led Conservation Cost-Share Program
•Priority Watershed Cost-Share Program
•Roadside Erosion Projects 17 Roadside Erosion
Conservation districts include funding for roadside erosion in budget requests every year even though the program has not been funded for almost 20 years.
Budget Requests
18 Water Plan Recommendations
Nonpoint Source Pollution
“Additionally, the OCC should emphasize roadside erosion and resulting sediment as a major contributor to water quality degradation. The OCC or other appropriate agencies should work with county commissioners to improve or fund proper construction and maintenance of roads to reduce sediment contribution. Finally, the OCC should continue to support nonpoint source water quality monitoring programs that can evaluate the effectiveness of these conservation practices and ensure maximum efficiency of available funding.” 19 Water Plan Recommendations
Water Supply Augmentation
•“A statewide process should be developed and implemented to evaluate the augmentation of water supplies through programs to manage invasive plant species, increase water filtration and reduce runoff.
•Current programs to eliminate eastern red cedar, salt cedar and other invasive species may positively impact the water balance.”
20 Rotating Basin Monitoring Program
•Each year two or three basins are monitored, adding one and
dropping one in succession.
•Using this rotation, all 11
basins and 250 streams are
monitored every five years, and then the rotation begins again.
•OCC has completed two five-year cycles.
21 Water Quality Success Stories
•Oklahoma is a National Leader in
Documented Water Quality
Success Stories
•Numbers for 2010 rank Oklahoma
among the top five states in controlling
nonpoint source water pollutants
nitrogen and phosphorus for the second year in a row.
•Oklahoma ranks in the top ten for the third year in a row while receiving less than one percent of federal EPA nonpoint source funds.
•The EPA website lists water quality success stories from Oklahoma. (www.epa.gov/owow/NPS/success)
•Only two states in the nation have more water quality success stories.
22 Wolf Creek Yellowstone Creek Sandy CreekPeacheater CreekMission CreekLittle Wewoka Creek Lake CreekDugout CreekDirty CreekElk CreekCooper CreekCloud CreekBull CreekBeaty Creek Oklahoma's Nonpoint Source Success StoriesWatershedsRotating Basin Monitoring Program
•This program has been able to document success stories of proven improvement with reductions of nutrients as high as 60 to 70 percent and in certain areas led to the
de-listing of several Oklahoma stream
segments from the state’s
impaired waters or
303(d) list. 23 Water Plan Recommendations
“Water Quality & Quantity Monitoring
–Better Data for Improved Decision-Making
The State Legislature should provide a dedicated source of funding to enable the State of Oklahoma to accurately assess the quality and quantity of its water resources, thereby ensuring improved water quality protection, accurate appropriation and allocation, and long-term collection of data to inform water management decisions. Such funding should be directed toward development and maintenance of a permanent statewide water quality and quantity monitoring program(s), specifically allowing for:
•Stable and dedicated appropriations for critical statewide monitoring programs, such as Oklahoma’s Cooperative Stream Gaging Program, Beneficial Use Monitoring Program and Nonpoint Source Monitoring Program, as well as other agency efforts to monitor point source, agriculture, mining, and oil and gas impacts.”
24 Proposed Budget Request FY2013
•Upstream Flood Control Infrastructure
–Operation & Maintenance $4,000,000
–Rehabilitation $4,000,000
–Breach Inundation Mapping $2,400,000
•Conservation Cost Share
–Locally-Led $5,600,000
–Priority Watershed $2,600,000
–Roadside Erosion $6,800,000
•Water Quality Monitoring $400,000 25 Water Plan Recommendations
“To ensure that publicly owned water and wastewater systems have the financing opportunities necessary to secure clean and reliable water supplies for current and future generations, Oklahoma must consider at least the following options for addressing this mounting infrastructure need:
5. Maintain Gross Production Tax revenue for water and wastewater infrastructure.” 26 Joint Legislative Water Committee
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Mike Thralls, Executive Director 27
