OKLAHOMA CITY – The Legislature this year authorized the sale of $17.5 million in bonds to finance repairs and rehabilitation of several high-hazard upstream flood control dams.
Senate Bill 1938 empowers the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority to issue the bonds on behalf of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.
Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, chairman of House Appropriations and Budget Committee, were the principal authors of the measure. Co-authors included Rep. Charles Ortega, R-Altus, and Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa.
The bill passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate almost unanimously and went into effect immediately with Governor Stitt’s signature on May 19.
A dozen dams are on the rehab list and are prioritized “considering greatest need and the ability to complete the project,” according to Bryan Painter, the Conservation Commission’s public information officer.
A project on Sallisaw Creek in Sequoyah County will be put out to bid in June; designs have been completed on an Upper Elk Creek site near Elk City and at Perry’s CCC Lake in the Upper Black Bear Creek watershed, “and sponsors are working on the land rights”; four projects are in the design phase and five are in the planning phase, Painter said.
The bond package was set at $17.5 million “because the estimated 35% sponsor match required for all of these projects is $17 million to $20 million,” said Trey Lam, the Conservation Commission’s executive director. The estimates were developed by planners and engineers with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Lam said.
The bonds are to be retired within 20 years “from the first principal maturity date” SB 1938 provides.
State Rep. Carl Newton said the $17.5 million in state bond proceeds will be coupled with a 65% federal match of $50 million to extend the life of the dams.
“Many of these dams are more than 50 years old and have reached their life expectancy,” said Newton, R-Cherokee, who had introduced a bill similar to SB 1938 in the House of Representatives.
“It is important that we protect the homes and cities that are built beneath these structures, many of which supply water to surrounding communities,” Newton said.
Dams that are assigned the high-hazard potential classification are not necessarily in danger of imminent failure. Instead, that classification is assigned to a structure whose failure or misoperation would probably cause loss of human life.
The NRCS reports it has constructed nearly 11,000 of the dams in 47 states. The watershed projects represent a $14 billion infrastructure and have provided flood control, municipal water supply, recreation, and wildlife habitat enhancement.
Oklahoma leads the nation with 2,107 upstream flood control dams constructed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Watershed Program. In fact, the first of those structures was built in Oklahoma in 1948 near Cordell.
More than 160 of these dams have been built in southwestern Oklahoma counties, reducing flood damages and providing other benefits, Conservation Commission records show.
• Comanche County has 10 dams that protect 24.6 square miles and that provide an estimated $330,000 in benefits annually.
• Stephens County has 63 upstream flood control dams that protect nearly 203 square miles and that prevent an estimated $4.466 million in flood damage each year.
• Kiowa County has 47 of the dams, which protect 232 square miles and which prevent an estimated $1.831 million in yearly damage from flooding.
• Tillman County has 13 of the dams protecting 121 square miles and providing an estimated $4.877 million in annual benefits.
• Jackson County has four upstream flood control dams protecting six square miles. Those structures have prevented an estimated $48,000 in annual property damage.
• Harmon County has 14 dams that protect 55 square miles and that provide an estimated $446,000 in annual benefits.
• Greer County has 13 of the dams controlling 28.5 square miles and preventing an estimated $230,000 in property damage from flooding each year.
• Cotton County is among the few counties in Oklahoma that have none of the upstream dams.