Robert Moore, general manager of the Marshall County Water Corporation, addresses a panel on local planning for future droughts at the 35th annual Oklahoma Governor's Water Conference in Oklahoma City Oct. 22.

Logan Layden / StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s New Normal: Water Forum Centers On Drought Adaptation

  • Logan Layden
Robert Moore, general manager of the Marshall County Water Corporation, addresses a panel on local planning for future droughts at the 35th annual Oklahoma Governor's Water Conference in Oklahoma City Oct. 22.

Logan Layden / StateImpact Oklahoma

Robert Moore, general manager of the Marshall County Water Corporation, addresses a panel on local planning for future droughts at the 35th annual Oklahoma Governor's Water Conference in Oklahoma City Oct. 22.

Drought — and how to deal with it — was the central theme of the annual Oklahoma Governor’s Water Conference last week in Oklahoma City, where water experts and authorities discussed issues ranging from crop management to what Las Vegas can teach Oklahoma about water conservation.

Oklahoma Water Resources Board Executive Director J.D. Strong made the point again this year: The future looks like the past — hotter and drier — and no one should be surprised.

“We went through a really abnormal 30-year period of relative wetness in our state that really  means we have an entire generation of people in our state that don’t know what it’s like to suffer through a multi-year significant drought,” Strong told attendees. “And once we crawl out of this one — and of course we all hope we’ll crawl out of it soon — we may look back and say this one eclipses the worst drought of record in the state of Oklahoma, which was the mid-50s”

At one of the breakout panel discussions, representatives of water districts from across central and western Oklahoma talked about the daunting challenges their cities face to meet growing demand for water in a drier climate.

“Every year, I need to drill a water well,” Guymon City Manager Kim Meek told the audience. “We get close to $500,000 per well. And if we need 50 wells by 2060, the quick math is $16 million just to drill water wells to provide the water we need for our growing population.”

The Oklahoman‘s Silas Allen was at an economic development panel where Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce Larry Parman spoke about the growing importance of reliable water sources for attracting business to the state.

Parman said he recently spoke with officials from a Chinese corporation that was considering several states, including Oklahoma, as sites for possible expansion. The company insisted the state they selected provide them with a guaranteed water supply, he said.

The water shortage is affecting the state’s economy in more ways than one.

Blayne Arthur, deputy commissioner for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry said the state’s agriculture sector lost about $1.5 billion due to drought in 2011 and about $1.7 billion the following year.

Arthur said she expects drought-related loses will be in the billions again this year.

The state’s tourism industry has felt the impact of drought as well, said Kris Marek, director of state parks for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. State parks draw boaters and anglers from Oklahoma and elsewhere, she said, but as lake levels have dropped, those visitors haven’t turned out in as large numbers.

The paper reports that In her keynote address, Gov. Mary Fallin said state officials are doing all they can when it comes to drought, and that residents should pray for rain.