Published: December 15, 2008 11:33 am      

Water - a commodity we can’t do without

Communities can do without a lot of things, water just doesn’t happen to be one of them. In 2003, with that general theme in mind, Oklahoma State Senate Bill 288 authorized a five year study to better calculate how much water could be taken out of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer without negatively affecting current users.

One rarely thinks about what one has until someone else tries to take it away. Such was the case with the Arbuckle-Simpson, this region’s source of water. Figurative alarms sounded when it was learned that Canadian County leaders to the northwest of us were exploring the possibility of constructing an 88-mile pipeline to the aquifer to siphon it off for their future needs.

Any list of valuable resources Pontotoc County possesses must include the one that proved most beneficial to combat this threat to our water supply – a host of local water experts. They and other concerned residents set about addressing the issue, hence the five-year study.

The previous pumping limit was two acre feet per acre. The study demonstrates what local experts had already surmised, that this liberal limit barely represented a limit at all. Due to study results, Oklahoma Water Resources Board members are saying the new limit needs to be reduced to .1 or .2 acre feet per acre for any new permits granted in the future.

Dick Scalf, Ada Water Resources Board member and Ada city councilor, said Ada currently has 10,000 acres of groundwater rights in addition to the flow available from Byrd’s Mill Spring, located 12 miles south of the city. Byrd’s Mill Spring originates with the aquifer and is usually sufficient to supply the city’s normal needs without having to pump water from the aquifer.

Average city of Ada usage is 5-6 million gallons of water daily. In dryer conditions, that can go as high as 10 million gallons daily. It is estimated that Ada’s water needs will grow to 12 million gallons per day by 2020, which will require an estimated 50,000 acres of additional water rights.

Now is the time to begin planning how to finance acquisition of the one commodity without which this or any community can exist – clean water.



Loné Beasley