{"id":23928,"date":"2015-05-21T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=23928"},"modified":"2015-05-21T08:24:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T13:24:40","slug":"southwest-oklahoma-cities-wrestle-with-how-to-ration-water-amid-plenty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/05\/21\/southwest-oklahoma-cities-wrestle-with-how-to-ration-water-amid-plenty\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Oklahoma Cities Wrestle With How To Ration Water Amid Plenty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23936\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23936\" alt=\"Craig Nance, owner of Nance Landscaping in Altus, Okla. says he hasn't done a landscaping job in Altus in three or four years because of the drought. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving1-e1432157007899.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving1-e1432157007899.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving1-e1432157007899-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving1-e1432157007899-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving1-e1432157007899-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Nance, owner of Nance Landscaping in Altus, Okla. says he hasn&#39;t done a landscaping job in Altus in three or four years because of the drought.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>May 2015 already <a title=\"NewsOKlink\" href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/may-could-be-one-of-oklahomas-all-time-wettest-climatologist-says\/article\/5420359\" target=\"_blank\">ranks as one of the wettest<\/a> in state history, and continues to snuff out the four-year drought that dried up cities in southwest Oklahoma. Water rationing helped keep Duncan, Lawton and Altus afloat, but those cities are now scaling back their water-saving mandates.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/206438983&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-->Praise and worry<\/h3><p>In Altus on May 19, the city council thanked God for the recent wet weather, and asked for the knowledge to be good stewards of this new bounty of water.<\/p><p>And to many people in Altus, it does feel like a miracle has happened. Craig Nance lives just outside town among greenhouses and young trees, all bursting with life. He says residents have been streaming to area lakes just to take a look at them.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a parade. And it\u2019s fun to watch,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople are just driving to the lakes to see the water level. Gotta see it to believe it.\u201d<\/p><p>He runs Nance Landscaping, which serves all of southwest Oklahoma. Being a landscaper during a drought isn\u2019t easy.<\/p><p>\u201cIn Altus I can tell you I haven\u2019t done a landscape job in the last four or five years there,\u201d Nance says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m honest with people. They\u2019d like to have landscapes, but when you can only water them once a week, it\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p><p>Yes, southwest Oklahoma is green again, but for how long? J.D. Strong, the executive director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, worries Oklahomans will fall back into old habits.<\/p><p>\u201cWhat we hope doesn\u2019t happen is what often happened in the past, which is once the rain comes and the drought begins to subside, most people tend to slip back into this apathetic tendency to just waste water and think that we\u2019ve got abundant water and we don\u2019t need to aggressively conserve that water resource,\u201d Strong says.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23938\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23938\" alt=\"Rising water levels inundate vegetation that was growing on the exposed lakebed at Tom Steed Lake near Altus, Okla.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving3-e1432157472834.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving3-e1432157472834.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving3-e1432157472834-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving3-e1432157472834-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving3-e1432157472834-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rising water levels inundate vegetation that was growing on the exposed lakebed at Tom Steed Lake near Altus, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Drought not forgotten<\/h3><p>City leaders in Duncan, Lawton, and Altus <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/05\/14\/rains-help-quench-oklahomas-drought-but-officials-warn-dry-days-could-return\/\" target=\"_blank\">know they\u2019re just one dry summer away<\/a> from being right back in a crippling drought, but water restrictions hinder growth and blow big holes in city budgets. Duncan has been under stage 5 water restrictions, meaning no outdoor watering, empty swimming pools, and restricted hours for commercial car washes. Saving all that water has cost a lot of money.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23939\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-23939\" alt=\"Duncan, Okla. City Manager Jim Frieda says his city is pushing forward with long-term projects to reduce the burden of future droughts.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving4-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Duncan, Okla. City Manager Jim Frieda says his city is pushing forward with long-term projects to reduce the burden of future droughts.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>\u201cI can basically tell you that what the conservation projects cost the city was about a $7 million in revenues,\u201d says Duncan City Manager Jim Frieda . \u201cWe went from average daily use of about 4.5 million to average daily use of about 2.5 million gallons.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Rain, and then what?<\/h3><p>Duncan last week <a title=\"DuncanBannerLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.swoknews.com\/area\/duncan-moves-back-stage-4-water-restrictions-after-rainfall\" target=\"_blank\">moved from stage 5 to stage 4<\/a> water restrictions, and Frieda says he expects to move to stage 3 soon, which would allow outdoor watering twice a week.<\/p><p>At the <a title=\"AltusLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.altusok.gov\/council-meetings\" target=\"_blank\">Altus City Council meeting on Tuesday<\/a>, Mayor Jack Smiley was wringing his hands over having to move from stage 3 to stage 2, and allow outdoor watering every other day.<\/p><p>\u201cI have found no citizen that\u2019s in favor of coming out of stage 3 and moving to stage 2,\u201d Smiley told the city council. \u201cBut I\u2019m asking you, please, don\u2019t put me in this position.\u201d<\/p><p>These water restrictions are based on how much water is in city lakes. They\u2019re supposed to trigger automatically, but all of the Altus council members wanted to keep current water limits in place, and were frustrated by the lack of flexibility in the city\u2019s water rationing ordinance.<\/p><p>Eventually, the council amended the city ordinance to remain at Stage 3.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23937\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23937\" alt=\"A closed car wash in Duncan, Okla. Under stage 5 water restrictions, commercial car washes had to cut their hours of operation. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving2-e1432157306702.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving2-e1432157306702.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving2-e1432157306702-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving2-e1432157306702-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/05\/PHOTO-5-21-KeepConserving2-e1432157306702-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A closed car wash in Duncan, Okla. Under stage 5 water restrictions, commercial car washes had to cut their hours of operation.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>The <a title=\"DuncanBannerLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.duncanbanner.com\/news\/waurika-lake-down-to-percent-level-contractor-for-humphreys-lake\/article_5633d788-5e45-11e4-8738-0be64a66b19d.html\" target=\"_blank\">situation in Lawton was getting desperate<\/a> before the rain came. Assistant City Manager Jerry Ihler says the city was probably just a couple of days away from going into stage 4.<\/p><p>Now, <a title=\"LawtonLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cityof.lawton.ok.us\/Rescinding%20Stage%201.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Lawton has dropped all mandatory water restrictions<\/a>. Still, the southwest Oklahoma city will <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/09\/11\/drought-stricken-southwest-oklahoma-towns-look-for-more-water-underground\/\" target=\"_blank\">push forward with plans<\/a> to dredge Waurika Lake and drill new groundwater wells to supplement their water supply. That\u2019s the plan in Duncan and Altus as well.<\/p><p>\u201cSo you diversify your stock portfolio. Well, we\u2019re looking at our water portfolio,\u201d Ihler says. \u201cAnd we have three lakes \u2014 surface water \u2014 and now we want to go ahead and expand our portfolio and include groundwater through wells and also reuse water.\u201d<\/p><p>So, at least for now, these southwestern Oklahoma cities aren\u2019t ready to fritter away their newfound water wealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This May already ranks as one of the wettest in state history, and continues to snuff out the four-year drought that dried up cities in southwest Oklahoma. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":23936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[423,162,331,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928"}],"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=23928"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23949,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928\/revisions\/23949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}