{"id":21298,"date":"2014-09-11T06:53:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T11:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=21298"},"modified":"2014-09-11T10:11:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T15:11:19","slug":"drought-stricken-southwest-oklahoma-towns-look-for-more-water-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/09\/11\/drought-stricken-southwest-oklahoma-towns-look-for-more-water-underground\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought-Stricken Cities in Southwest Oklahoma Look for Water Underground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

After four years of drought, municipal water storage in in Altus-Lugert lake has dropped to about 10 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Water supplies in southwest Oklahoma are in danger of drying up<\/a> as four years of drought drag lake levels to record lows. Some communities are scrambling to supplement their current water sources, while others look for new sources \u2014 in Texas.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

Estimates say Duncan\u2019s main water source \u2014 Lake Waurika \u2014 could be too low<\/a> to use by 2016.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re about a year\u2019s worth of rainfall behind,\u201d Scott Vaughn, public works director for the city of Duncan says. \u201cThe city actually owns 100 percent of four other lakes: Clear Creek Lake, Duncan Lake, Lake Fuqua and Lake Humphreys.<\/p>\n

“This is the worst I\u2019ve ever seen it. I\u2019ve seen a lot, and I try to conserve every bit of water I can, but it\u2019s hard to do,” Brenny Aldridge worries. His livelihood depends on water. He owns a car wash in Duncan. “You know, they should\u2019ve been five years, ten years behind trying to figure out how to get extra water instead of waiting to get into a crisis. And it won\u2019t happen overnight.”<\/p>\n

\"Car<\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Car wash owner Brenny Aldridge outside Main Street Dirt Busters in Duncan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Underground Solution<\/h4>\n

All five of Duncan\u2019s lakes are critically low. The story is similar in Lawton and Altus. Each city has its own particular problems and plans to address them, but what they have in common is a reliance on lakes that are drying up. And they\u2019re all looking underground for a solution. Rather, they\u2019re looking back underground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past the city of Lawton had groundwater, but for the last 40 years or so or maybe more, Lawton has relied on surface water,\u201d the City of Lawton\u2019s Afsaneh Jabbar says. \u201cNow we\u2019re looking at groundwater to see if that\u2019s an option for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before any southwest Oklahoma lakes existed, these same communities relied on water from underground aquifers. After the lakes were built in the ’50s and ’60s, a wet period in Oklahoma\u2019s history kept them full. Groundwater was phased out and its infrastructure left to rot. Acting Altus City Manager Greg Buckley says crews are on it now.<\/p>\n

\"Caption\"<\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Afsaneh Jabbar, assistant director for water and wastewater with the Lawton Public Works Department.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of redoing a water line that runs to wells that are south of town,\u201d Buckley says. \u201cThey became in disrepair because we really didn\u2019t need them for a while so the city just didn\u2019t maintain them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The addition of previously used groundwater sources, replacing century-old pipes and better managing surface water will cost millions of dollars for all three cities, but combined with aggressive conservation and reuse, might be enough to keep Duncan and Lawton afloat even if the drought continues. But the Altus area needs more.<\/p>\n

Eyes on Texas<\/h4>\n

\u201cThere is discussion from the Texas panhandle to take and build a pipeline that will go from there, back somewhere there here along Altus, and then back down to the Red River into Texas,\u201d Buckley says.<\/p>\n

\"Altus<\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Altus business owner Loran Moran outside Altus City Hall after paying a water bill.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe found an Ogallala Aquifer supply that was untapped and available,\u201d says Larry Roach with Guernsey, the engineering consulting firm behind the idea. \u201cAnd we started putting together a remanent of a plan where we could provide water not only to north Texas panhandle people who really don\u2019t have a lot of demand, but bring it south and help the southwest Oklahoma communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given how resistant<\/a> Oklahoma has been to sharing water with Texas, you\u2019d think they\u2019d be against such a plan, but Roach says the pipeline would also bring more water to Wichita Falls and areas of north Texas that desperately need it.<\/p>\n

Outside Altus City Hall, local business owner Loran Mayes fights the wind as she straps her toddler into a car seat. She just hopes the city knows what it\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to have confidence that the people in this building are working diligently to fix the problem,\u201d Mayes says. \u201cI also own a small business here, and so our income is affected because it\u2019s hard to spend money in a town where there\u2019s no money and no water.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says however Altus decides to ensure its water future, it\u2019s important the plan is affordable. That\u2019s a challenge. Just the feasibility study for the Oklahoma-Texas pipeline, the initial step in the process, will cost three-quarters of a million dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some communities are scrambling to supplement their current water sources, while others look for new sources \u2014 in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":21299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[423,331,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21298"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21325,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21298\/revisions\/21325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}