Southeast Oklahoma has many of the state’s largest lakes and rivers and most of the state’s water, but no one from the area serves on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the state’s water regulator. A 2013 law requires the area to have representation. But, so far, that hasn’t happened.

It was just a few months ago when lakes across western Oklahoma were drying up, and the prospects for relief from five years of drought were desperately poor.

Fallin told the crowd Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry injected 1.5 billion barrels of wastewater from fracking into the ground last year.

Exactly where the border between Oklahoma and Texas lies along the Red River has never been completely clear.

Starting in 2014, as each member’s term expires, the governor will chose new members from each of nine regions of the state.