{"id":23475,"date":"2015-04-02T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=23475"},"modified":"2015-04-02T05:57:47","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T10:57:47","slug":"the-view-from-sardis-lake-why-moving-water-to-where-its-needed-is-so-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/04\/02\/the-view-from-sardis-lake-why-moving-water-to-where-its-needed-is-so-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"The View From Sardis Lake: Why Moving Water to Where It&#8217;s Needed is So Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23501\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23501\" alt=\"A sign along Oklahoma Highway 43 near Sardis Lake. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/04\/20150402-SardisLake002_WEB-620x413.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign along Oklahoma Highway 43 near Sardis Lake.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Moving water from where it\u2019s plentifu<strong>l<\/strong> to where it\u2019s needed seems like a logical way to meet all Oklahomans&#8217; future water needs. But water transfers are complicated, and not just because they\u2019re expensive <strong>\u2014<\/strong> but because communities with lots of water want to keep it. Nothing illustrates this tension\/challenge\/whatever better than<a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/sardis-lake\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Sardis Lake<\/a>.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/198805994&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><!--more--><\/h3><p>A bill passed by the state Senate \u2014 SB760 \u2014 would, among other things, study whether moving water from basin to basin is a viable way of mitigating drought, and started with the idea of moving water from the eastern part of the state to the west. But it&#8217;s not the first time people in southeast Oklahoma have faced the prospect of losing the water in their area.<\/p>\n<h3>Before the Lake<\/h3><p>Byron Bohanon reminisces as he stands in what used to be his front yard.<\/p><p>\u201cGrandpa Mahoney had 510 acres and this is what\u2019s not under water,\u201d he says. \u201cMy mother was born in 1914 and my dad was born in 1915, and they courted right here.\u201d<\/p><p>That was before Sardis dam was built and the lake covered his old stomping grounds among the potato hills southeast of McAlester. Now, there\u2019s a pavilion where his house was, just feet from a boat ramp and a beach. Jim Koopman also had his land condemned to build the lake in the 1970s.<\/p><p>\u201cThey sent a U.S. Marshall out to me and said to get my cattle off of their land,\u201d Koopman says.<\/p><p>They remember the tiny \u2014 now submerged \u2014 <i>town<\/i> of Sardis.<\/p><p>\u201cFirst barber shop I ever went to was there,\u201d Bohanon says. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t have electricity.\u201d<\/p><p>Bohanon and Koopman say they and others like them gave up their land for the greater good of the area. Flooding was huge problem before the dam. And tourism promised to bring some kind of economic life to a downtrodden area. Fishing, boating, hiking, wildlife: The place is an outdoorsman\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23505\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23505\" alt=\"Jim Koopman had land condemned by the federal government to make way for Sardis Lake's construction. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/04\/20150402-SardisLake003_WEB-620x412.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Koopman had land condemned by the federal government to make way for Sardis Lake&#39;s construction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Try, try, and try again<\/h3><p>But almost as soon as Sardis filled with water, the rush was on to deal the rights to the water out of state. Andrew Husky with Oklahomans for Responsible Water Policy:<\/p><p>\u201cAnd after they took the land from the people, built the lake, then real quickly they came and said, \u2018Mr. Koopman, Mr. Bohannan, community, we\u2019ve decided to transfer 93 percent to North Texas Municipal Water District,\u201d Husky tells StateImpact.<\/p><p>Husky resigned his position with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board over <a title=\"NewsOKlink\" href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/board-considers-water-agreement\/article\/2432874\" target=\"_blank\">that attempt to move the water to North Texas<\/a> in the early 1990s. There was a heated public meeting one day. Then, at the state capitol the next day\u2026<\/p><p>\u201cThey passed legislation to tell the OWRB to stop, do not go down there and sign that contract. This who thing is on hold,\u201d Husky says. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for about 300 people around here, North Texas Municipal Water District would have this lake.\u201d<\/p><p>So, transfer attempt number one: failed.<\/p><p>Sardis is one of the few lakes built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the state actually had to pay for. Often the <a title=\"MustangLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mustangpaper.com\/contentitem\/177650\/1586\/owrb-transfers-sardis-lake-water-rights-to-okc\" target=\"_blank\">state didn\u2019t make those payments<\/a> and has always been looking for someone else to take the responsibility, and the water.<\/p><p>The state tried again to transfer Sardis water to a <i>different<\/i> north Texas water district a decade later, a move that would <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/tarrant-vs-herrmann\/page\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\">prompt the state legislature<\/a> to enact a seven-year moratorium on out of state water sales.<\/p><p>Transfer attempt number two: failed.<\/p><p>Then Oklahoma City gets into the act. <em>Have a date on this?<\/em> Oklahoma City currently pipes water from nearby Atoka Lake, but it\u2019s not enough, and the <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/07\/17\/why-the-okc-coalition-to-pump-water-from-southeast-oklahoma-fell-apart\/\" target=\"_blank\">plan is to transfer water<\/a> from Sardis to Atoka, then to OKC along a new Atoka Pipeline.<\/p><p>\u201cRight now they have water use permits, at the OWRB, for 90 percent of the lake,\u201d Husky says.<\/p><p>The OWRB hasn\u2019t been able to approve those permits because the <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/09\/19\/the-fight-for-southeast-oklahoma-water-has-19th-century-roots\/\" target=\"_blank\">Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations sued over the issue<\/a>, claiming <i>they <\/i>hold the rights to Sardis Lake and all of the water in southeast Oklahoma. The parties in the case have been negotiating a settlement for four years with no end in sight.<\/p><p>Transfer attempt number three: on hold.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23507\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23507\" alt=\"Atoka Lake, currently a water source for Oklahoma City, near where Oklahoma Highway 43 meets U.S. Highway 69. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/04\/20150402-AtokaLake001_WEB-620x412.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Atoka Lake, currently a water source for Oklahoma City, near where Oklahoma Highway 43 meets U.S. Highway 69.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Why they fight<\/h3><p>It\u2019s easy to see why the people here don\u2019t want to share. They don\u2019t have to look any further than Oklahoma City\u2019s Atoka Lake, just down the road.<\/p><p>\u201cYou cross the end of Atoka Lake, and as far as you can see back down through there there\u2019s nothing but stumps and rotted trees and mud flats for, I mean, acres and acres of nothing but mud,\u201d Jim Koopman says.<\/p><p>And he worries a draw-down like the one <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/11\/07\/canton-businessowners-on-the-brink-months-after-oklahoma-city-water-withdrawl\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma City did at Canton Lake<\/a> in 2013 would devastate the thriving tourism industry towns like Clayton and Talihina rely on.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s the life of Clayton,\u201d Koopman says.<\/p><p>Even with the <a title=\"OKlegLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=SB760\" target=\"_blank\">state legislature considering a bill<\/a> to study the feasibility of moving water to drought-plagued southwest Oklahoma, Husky thinks the people around Sardis will ultimately get to keep what they see as <i>their<\/i> water.<\/p><p>\u201cI think we\u2019ll be having a celebration, maybe right here. We\u2019ll have a party and celebrate preserving a natural asset like this for the community,\u201d Husky says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moving water from where it\u2019s plentiful \u2014 in sparsely populated southeast Oklahoma \u2014 to where it\u2019s needed seems like a logical way to meet everyone\u2019s future water needs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[423,364,163,538,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23475"}],"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=23475"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23519,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23475\/revisions\/23519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}