From staff reports LONE WOLF – A public meeting to provide information and to field questions and opinions about the statewide comprehensive water plan is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. on April 15 at Quartz Mountain State Lodge, 22469 Lodge Road.
Data on the West Central, Southwest, Beaver-Cache, and Lower Washita Planning Regions is to be presented.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board has been hosting a series of in-person and virtual meetings with water industry professionals and the public on development of the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan.
The Plan focuses on securing and building water resilience for all Oklahomans for the next 50 years.
The purpose of the meetings is to gather region-specific information from stakeholders to inform the team on prioritizing technical and policy needs for all the state’s water use sectors.
State statutes direct the OWRB to forecast long term water needs through decennial updates to the OCWP to provide local planners and lawmakers with data critical for ensuring safe and reliable water.
The planning team is conducting detailed assessments of physical and legal water availability to determine water supply and demand in each of the state’s 82 planning basins.
To build on the findings of the last OCWP update (2012), the 2025 update is specifically focusing on water infrastructure with an emphasis on the need for water investment mechanisms.
Planning strategies include traditional and nontraditional approaches to meeting water supply needs, such as expanding reclaimed water use, reservoir storage, and stormwater capture and use. In a related project, for the first time ever, the OWRB has developed a statewide flood plan.