Oklahoma Representative Carl Newton held an interim study examining the state’s water resources and concerns about the long-term availability of groundwater, particularly in western Oklahoma.
Newton said drought conditions and declining aquifers have increased concerns in areas that depend heavily on groundwater.
“There’s probably not anything else that’s more crucial to our everyday life than water,” Newton said. “Without that underground water, we would cease to exist out there.”
Officials with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board told lawmakers that western Oklahoma and the Panhandle experience some of the state’s most severe drought conditions. They also discussed challenges in tracking groundwater use, including incomplete well reporting and reliance on estimates from many permit holders.
The study also examined Oklahoma’s future water infrastructure needs and ways to conserve existing supplies.
One possible long-term solution discussed was transferring water from areas with greater supplies to parts of western Oklahoma where aquifers are declining.
Grand River Dam Authority board member Tom Kimball said such projects would be difficult, but water that currently flows downstream after being used for power generation could potentially be captured and moved to other parts of Oklahoma.
Newton said the study was intended to give lawmakers a better understanding of the condition of Oklahoma’s groundwater supplies and what could be done to protect them for the future.
