OKLAHOMA WATER RESOURCES BOARD
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Water Resources Board continues to gather data about the quantity and quality of water supplies in southwest Oklahoma.
Agreements governing a multi-jurisdictional program of water monitoring and data collection at Comanche, Caddo and Jackson County lakes plus a Cotton County stream was renewed recently for another year during the Water Board’s regular monthly meeting. The program is supported and administered by local entities, the OWRB and the U.S. Geological Survey.
CITY OF LAWTON
The City of Lawton, for example, has “an important interest” in the program, “particularly regarding the determination of available water supplies in its general vicinity,” the memorandum agreement reads.
Consequently, continuous stage recorders that measure water volumes will be operated and maintained at Lake Lawtonka, near Medicine Park; Lake Ellsworth, near Elgin; and on East Cache Creek, near Walters.
Information from the recorders is available, in real-time, on the USGS web page.
The year-long work for Lawton will cost $15,200 from the city and $10,400 in USGS matching funds, for a total of $25,600 that will be paid to the OWRB to do the work.
FORT COBB RESERVOIR
A similar program has been ongoing at Fort Cobb Reservoir for 50 years; it consists of two stream-flow stations on Cobb Creek, near Eakly and near Fort Cobb, plus one station at the lake, also near Fort Cobb.
“The purpose of these records is to provide data to compute a complete water budget at the reservoir,” the agreement between the OWRB and the USGS provides.
That 12-month data-collection project will cost $34,900; the Fort Cobb Master Conservancy District will pay the OWRB $21,600 and the USGS will contribute $13,300.
LUGERT-ALTUS
IRRIGATION DISTRICT
Water monitoring also will be conducted in the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District. One station is on the North Fork of the Red River, near Carter; another station is on the North Fork of the Red River below Altus Dam; and a third station is on the lake, near the site of the former town of Lugert.
That data-collection project will cost $36,200 in Fiscal Year 2020, to be financed with $21,000 from the irrigation district and $15,200 from the USGS.
Lake Altus-Lugert, an impoundment of the North Fork of the Red River, is the primary storage facility for the W.C. Austin Project (a/k/a the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District) of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The irrigation district provides water to approximately 47,000 acres of land, mostly in Jackson County but also in Greer County; cotton is the crop grown on almost all of that land.
The water is delivered via 30 miles of primary canals extending from the lake north of Altus to just south of Altus, plus 300 miles of smaller canals and laterals that supply water to about 330 landowners, irrigation district Manager Tom Buchanan said.
The Lugert-Altus Irrigation District first provided water to its customers in 1946, records reflect. During a drought in the 1950s, only a “minimal amount” of water was conveyed from the lake to the district, Buchanan said. But no water at all was provided for four consecutive years, 2011-14, because of severe drought conditions in southwest Oklahoma, Buchanchanan recalled; crop insurance was the farmers’ salvation. Conversely, he said, this year has been “one of the wettest springs on record,” which has been “challenging” for district farmers.
WATER QUALITY TESTING
The OWRB also conducts extensive water quality testing throughout the state via its Beneficial Use Monitoring Program (BUMP), said Lance Phillips, the OWRB’s environmental programs manager for rivers and streams.
Testing sites in southwest Oklahoma, he said, include East Cache Creek and West Cache Creek, Beaver Creek near Waurika, the Washita River, and Elk Creek near Roosevelt.
“We visit each of those sites between six and eight times a year,” while some other sites are visited just once every five years, Phillips said.
Field workers check for insects every two years, fish every five years; both are indicators of a healthy environment. Water samples collected in the field are sent to a laboratory operated by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
BUMP SAMPLING
Among the lakes on the BUMP sampling list are Altus, Comanche, Duncan, Ellsworth and Lawtonka, Elmer Thomas, Foss, Fort Cobb, Frederick, Marlow (Taylor Lake), Tom Steed, Walters (Dave Boyer Lake), and Waurika.
The waters of Oklahoma are examined for myriad substances: metals such as arsenic, lead, iron and mercury; chloride; acidity/ alkalinity; salinity; chlorophyll and algae; nitrogen; pesticides, herbicides and fungicides; total dissolved solids; turbidity; nitrogen; fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria; nitrates and phosphorus, calcium, potassium and magnesium, etc.
ANNUAL REPORT
Each year the OWRB publishes a report that discloses detailed physical, chemical, and biological information collected at approximately 600 sites on 155 lakes and streams throughout the state.
A groundwater component was added to the BUMP in 2012 with the creation of the Groundwater Monitoring and Assessment Program (GMAP). The GMAP monitoring network is comprised of approximately 750 wells in Oklahoma›s 21 major aquifers (sampled on a four-year rotation).
The OWRB conducts statistical survey monitoring throughout the state at sites selected randomly by computer.
Lake and stream sites are sampled across the state. Any lakes greater than 50 surface acres in size and any stream segment can be selected for testing.
A physical habitat assessment is conducted, chemistry is analyzed, and samples of algae and bacteria are collected at each waterbody. Fish and macroinvertebrate collections are also made at each selected stream site.
The OWRB established its BUMP two decades ago, in 1998. Data provided by the program “plays an essential role in the state’s water quality management decision-making process by helping to identify waters experiencing impairments as well as the cause of declining water quality,” the agency contends.
The BUMP also is “invaluable to the development and refinement” of Oklahoma’s Water Quality Standards, the OWRB reports. Beneficial uses, “the backbone of the Water Quality Standards,” are assigned to individual lakes, streams, and stream segments based upon the primary benefits derived from those waters by the public.
Beneficial uses include public and private water supply, fish and wildlife propagation, agriculture, primary body contact recreation (such as swimming), secondary body contact recreation (such as boating or fishing), navigation, and aesthetics.