OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s a necessary part of life.
It’s been used for both economic development and quality recreation. It’s a key part of food and of transportation. One Oklahoma political leader called it our state’s most precious resource.
It’s also one of the main ingredients in iced tea and good bourbon: water.
And though it currently remains plentiful, Oklahoma policymakers now face new concerns about water quality, skyrocketing consumption rates — and the cost to make sure each resident of this state has access to good water.
A new report from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board echoes those concerns. The 2025 Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan says the demand for water will continue to increase, along with the cost of managing those resources.
Water, it seems, is getting more expensive.
Water a longtime issue in Oklahoma
Oklahomans have long had access to beaches, lakes, and rivers across the state. But water quality and the policies governing its use have changed.
In some areas, what was once a sparkling swimming area is now off limits and though many families still eat their catches from an Oklahoma lake, the Department of Environmental Quality now urges anglers to check the agency’s mercury advisories before making their catch a part of the meal.
The story of Oklahoma and water, one historian said, is the story of how there is little balance to the state’s most important natural resource.
Bob Burke, an attorney and historian, said the story of water here is a simple one: one half of the state has plenty of water, while the other half doesn’t have enough.
“We have two sides, two stories in Oklahoma,” Burke said. “One is half the state has excess water; the other half doesn’t have enough.”
In many areas, both the need for more water — and the costs associated with getting that water to use — continue to grow.
One example: Edmond needs more water, and the cost is rising
In Edmond, water usage has jumped dramatically. Estimates put a typical Edmond home’s water consumption at about 5,000 gallons of water per month. At the same time, Edmond — which purchases a great deal of its water from Oklahoma City — has seen water costs rapidly increase.
The end result? Skyrocketing water bills.
An Edmond residential water customer could see their bills increase by 13.7% beginning July 1, then another 12.2% in 2027, then increase again by 2.1% in 2028, and 2.2% in 2029.
Those increases mean that a standard Edmond water bill would rise from $105.18 per month at present to $123.24 starting July 1, then to $141.51 in 2027, to $145.01 in 2028, and to $148.72 in 2029, according to an analysis published by The Oklahoman.
That’s not the only water issue.
In Northeastern Oklahoma, water, poultry, and how poultry waste affects water quality have been ground zero in a legal battle that’s lasted more than two decades. On April 8, just when it looked like the long-running lawsuit would be settled, U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell of the Northern District of Oklahoma rejected all the settlement offers and sent all parties back to the negotiation table.
That legal battle has grown so much that it now involves the governor, the attorney general, federal officials, Oklahomans who raise chickens for revenue, and several nationally known poultry producers.
“My heart goes out to the poultry growers in Eastern Oklahoma. The uncertainty they face is unimaginable, and it was preventable if Attorney General Drummond had simply withdrawn from this 20-year-old Democrat lawsuit,” the governor said after the judge’s ruling came out. “After decades of litigation, the Attorney General left the economic fates of these poultry growers to the courts despite ample opportunity to settle in a manner that protects the environment and the growers’ livelihoods. After the court ruled, he rushed to settle in a way that would have created an unsustainable checkerboard of regulations. This ruling will harm the poultry growers’ ability to earn a living and will saddle them with millions of dollars of remediation costs.”
And that fight continues. In Southeastern Oklahoma, fights over water and access to places such as Sardis Lake are legendary. Those fights involved the city of Oklahoma City, tribal nations and the state.
And while the case was finally put to rest, the debate over water access and usage hasn’t stopped.
In addition to changes in population density and business and industry needs, a report from the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory shows that the growth of data centers could have a dramatic impact on water usage.
The report said roughly 90% to 93% of a data centers’ footprint comes from electricity generation alone.
“Most of the water needed comes from electricity generated offsite,” the report said. “Especially if that power comes from fossil fuels or nuclear power, which use massive amounts of water.”
Those new data center issues, combined with the state’s territorial-style water policy, will keep the debate alive, Burke said.
“The leaders of Eastern Oklahoma recognize how important their water is to future industrial development and personal use,” Burke said. “I don’t know that they ever get beyond protecting their own resources, then to share it with other Oklahomans.
I mean, because that’s a deep-seated pride in a natural resource.”
So how does Oklahoma protect its water and distribute it?
So what, exactly, does the future look like?
Enter the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Created in 1957 by the 26th Oklahoma Legislature, the OWRB was established as an independent agency to plan, manage, and monitor the state’s water resources in response to a severe drought.
Over the years, the agency has been busy with policy development, assistance to state communities, and even the occasional federal lawsuit between the state, tribal nations, and the OWRB.
And even though some of the agency’s efforts have encountered difficulties, the OWRB has provided much-needed information and analysis on the state’s water quality, use, locations, and funding to support future projections.
Still, more work is needed — about $24 billion worth.
“Even with these substantial investments, the challenges facing water utilities and rural water districts vastly exceed available funding capacity,” The OWRB’s 2025 report said. “The scale of Oklahoma’s $24 billion infrastructure needs requires a proportional response that leverages proven programs while eliminating critical funding barriers.”
Those cost estimates follow the agency’s projection that demands for public water will increase by 18% by 2075.
Those needs include about $7 billion for wastewater projects, $16.6 billion for water infrastructure to supply future demands and more than $700 million for flooding prevention.
Those needs will not only affect the state’s budget but also intensify the politics involved in Oklahoma water and water policy.
“I think it’s pretty political, and it’s getting more so,” said Rose State College political science Professor James Davenport. “There are conflicts over water rights, right? Especially if you look at tribal interests versus state interests. You’ve got conflict there. You have a conflict between urban areas and rural areas. You’ve got a conflict over whether or not we should sell water to other states, since we need it. Should we not? So there are several different pieces of this argument that generate political conflict.”
The OWRB’s report anticipates future water problems in some areas of the state.
“By 2075, surface water gaps, where projected demand exceeds available supply, are anticipated in more than half of the state’s 82 planning basins,” the report said.
The fights and the politics involved, Davenport said, are based on the simple idea that water is a scarce resource.
“People are concerned that, you know, they don’t want their communities to be left without adequate access to it in the future,” he said. “There’s concern on that level. I will say that’s a little bit like the argument about oil. We’ve heard for three or four decades that we were at peak oil, and we keep finding more.”
And while Davenport said some of the concerns can be overblown, he said new business efforts could further intensify the political side.
“I do think that a new issue is coming up,” he said. “I think there is some fear about the issue of data centers and the number of resources, including water, they would take.”
In Oklahoma, water politics has been a fight for decades.
“These fights have been ongoing since statehood,” Davenport said.
Burke agreed, saying the debate over water and the issues involved with it will continue because of Oklahoma’s structure.
“There is more likelihood of Oklahoma leaders in the southeast selling water to Texas and transferring it economically by gravity, than there is of, in the next century, sharing it with the neighbors in Western Oklahoma,” Burke said. “Part of it is the cost, but it’s that pride and that natural resource.”
Don’t expect that fight to end anytime soon.
“It’s one of those things that if Oklahoma lasts 200 more years, I anticipate that Eastern Oklahoma will still be fighting with Western Oklahoma over the water,” Burke said.