Hugo and Altus city officials continue to discuss a controversial pipeline between the two towns, despite pushback at a recent hearing.
Numerous citizens and members of the Choctaw Nation addressed the Hugo City Council with questions about the feasibility of selling water to Altus, or any municipality. According to Hugo News, most spoke against the plan, citing problems with the lake’s fluctuating water levels.
Reports from the Oklahoma Water Resource Board show both regions are expected to need more water by 2060. Altus, in the Southwest Watershed, is expected to need 20% more water while Hugo in the Southeast Watershed is expected to increase by 26%, which raises questions about so-called surplus water.
Cody Pipeline Partners, a Texas-based company, approached leaders last year in Altus and Hugo in the hopes those municipalities would consider a water pipeline between the two cities. The company's owners are oil and gas executives, and although they have never constructed a pipeline for drinking water, have said they've built millions of dollars in water infrastructure, Southwest Ledger previously reported.
Altus City Manager Gary Jones said so far, he and other interested parties continue to discuss the possibility, including members of the Choctaw Nation, which has control over water in its jurisdiction and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, which issues water permits.
Jones said he had not yet met with the Chickasaw Nation, where a portion of the proposed pipeline would run.
“It’ll be a long process,” Jones said. “It’s going to take quite a few people working together to make it happen.”
The Choctaw Nation released a statement for this story, which stated it did not approve of the project concept due to too many unknowns at this time, but “we remain open to learning more and collaborating with our partners.”
Hugo City Manager Leah Thomas said the matter must be thoroughly studied before any formal plans can take shape.
In addition to internal studies, Thomas said the city will hire consultants to probe the concept and determine how much water citizens in Hugo will need in the future. Studies will also examine potential impacts to federally protected species that depend on the water, she said.
“Right now it’s still just being considered a potential sale of water to Altus,” Thomas said. “We’re still being educated on what the effects of the sale of water would be.”
If approved, the sale of water would boost revenue to improve the city’s infrastructure and quality of life amenities like parks and recreation, Thomas said.
Cody Pipeline Partners did not respond to a request for an interview. Water Woes The Oklahoma Water Resources Board is in the middle of an update to the state’s Comprehensive Water Plan. The 50-year forecast on water supply and quality is updated every 10 years.
The current plan update will not be published until Sept. 1, 2025, the board’s Director of Water Planning, Owen Mills said.
Though he declined to comment on any discussions related to the pipeline concept, Mills said both the southwest and southeast regions face their own unique challenges.
While Altus gets water primarily from the Tom Steed Reservoir, farmers in the area are parched for water to irrigate crops due to chronic drought, Mills said. Altus is part of the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District, the state’s only official district. It provides water via four canals to its farming members.
“The droughts have been so bad that in seven of the last 12 years, they haven’t had a crop,” Mills said. “They’ve had to claim insurance. In the last three years, there hasn’t been a crop at all. There’s not enough water.”
The water resource board in 2023 approved a $25 million loan for the district, financed by a grant through the Oklahoma American Rescue Plan Act. Those funds will be used on construction upgrades and improvements to the water system, according to a press release at the time.
Meanwhile, Hugo has its own obstacles to water supply, Mills said.
“Even though there’s an enormous amount of water that they have, believe it or not, the Kiamichi sometimes goes dry or darn near close to dry,” he said.
The region’s economy also depends on tourism from hunters and fishers, something dependent on water supply, Mills said. More water challenges The southwest region also faces broader challenges to existing bodies of water, like Cache Creek, a source of water that continues to battle a high level of pollutants, such as heavy metals, salts and bacteria, said Shanon Phillips, Director of Water Quality for the Oklahoma Conservation Commission. The commission works to improve soil and water conditions through conservation.
“It’s more challenging to treat that water (in order) to drink from it,” Phillips said. “Those are some of the concerns that folks in southwestern Oklahoma are dealing with, but that’s not to say that southeast Oklahoma has a free ride and they don’t have any challenges.”
Despite more rainfall in the southeast, aquifers “are really challenged in terms of their ability to recharge,” or refill, Phillips said. The region also experiences drought with less ability to withstand it compared to the southwest, she said.
“There are water shortages in both places, but they just look different,” she said.