{"id":25947,"date":"2016-01-21T11:10:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=25947"},"modified":"2016-01-21T11:10:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:10:33","slug":"budget-crisis-could-hinder-states-ability-to-manage-floods-and-protect-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/01\/21\/budget-crisis-could-hinder-states-ability-to-manage-floods-and-protect-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Crisis Could Hinder State&#8217;s Ability to Manage Floods and Protect Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_25956\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25956\" alt=\"Children play in a small tributary of the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Okla., in May 2015. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic2.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic2-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic2-300x200.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\">Children play in a small tributary of the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Okla., in May 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oil and gas are endangering the Oklahoma&#8217;s streams, soil and wetlands. Not by polluting them, but because <a title=\"NPRlink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/01\/19\/463622817\/in-oklahoma-low-energy-prices-drive-state-budget-crisis\" target=\"_blank\">plummeting oil prices have blown a billion-dollar hole in the state&#8217;s budget<\/a>. Funding cuts at agencies that manage Oklahoma\u2019s natural resources could threaten the state\u2019s beauty, as well as people\u2019s lives and property, officials say.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/243076502&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><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p><p>When the Oklahoma Conservation Commission\u2019s Robert Hathorne <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/07\/09\/record-rainfall-magnifies-problems-for-oklahomas-aging-flood-control-dams\/\" target=\"_blank\">spoke with StateImpact last summer,<\/a> he lamented how much work it takes to maintain thousands of flood control dams with little money and manpower.<\/p><p>\u201cThe idea of maintaining an infrastructure of over 2,000 dams with nine people \u2014 that\u2019s a tall order,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>At the time, the Conservation Commission was facing a 4 percent cut in its state appropriation and had to leave on the table $32 million in federal matching money for upgrades to aging dams that keep floodwaters from inundating populated areas and farmland.<\/p><p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t receive that $11.8 million from the state, $32 million federal dollars for Oklahoma\u2019s infrastructure upgrades goes away. It\u2019s going to go to another state,\u201d Hathorne said.<\/p><p>The Conservation Commission didn\u2019t receive the money last year. And it&#8217;s not looking good this year either.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_25958\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25958\" alt=\"Western Oklahoma wheat farmers learn about sustainable farming practices from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission in a field near Leedy, Okla., in August 2015. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic4.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic4.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic4-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic4-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic4-300x200.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\">Western Oklahoma wheat farmers learn about sustainable farming practices from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission in a field near Leedy, Okla., in August 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>After state finance officials declared a &#8220;revenue failure&#8221; in December, the Conservation Commission <a title=\"OKwatchLink\" href=\"http:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2015\/12\/15\/state-announces-revenue-failure-forcing-mid-year-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\">took a mid-year cut<\/a> like every state agency. More cuts are expected when the new fiscal year begins this July. Hathorne, maybe the agency\u2019s biggest cheerleader, has moved on to another job and there\u2019s no money to replace him.<\/p><p>Lam is the commission\u2019s executive director, and he says dams are too important to put on the back burner.<\/p><p>\u201cWhether we talk about public safety through law enforcement or public safety through the prisons, to us this is a public safety issue because the dams do need to be taken care of,\u201d Lam says. \u201cThey do provide a benefit to private property, to human life.\u201d<\/p><p>He says there could be big problems if funding continues to lag as the aging earthen structures get even older.<\/p><p>\u201cThen there is the potential in the future of having a dam fail,\u201d Lam says.<\/p><p>One of Lam\u2019s biggest worries is the agency&#8217;s need to scale back its non-point source pollution program, an effort to educate farmers and ranchers on practices that keep the state\u2019s streams clean. Non-point source pollution is basically water that runs off the land and into streams from farms and ranches.<\/p><p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t do the conservation on the land then we can\u2019t clean up the streams,\u201d Lam says. \u201cBecause if we continue to have soil and nutrients wash off the land, if we continue to have cattle that have open access to all the streams, we\u2019re going to have streams that are polluted.\u201d<\/p><p>While the Conservation Commission works to clean up streams across the state, the Scenic Rivers Commission focuses on maintaining the beauty of the Illinois River and a handful of other specially protected rivers in northeast Oklahoma. They\u2019re kind of like the police for the river \u2014 cleaning up trash, permitting canoes and floats, finding drowning victims, and keeping drunken tourists in check.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_25957\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25957\" alt=\"Ed Fite, executive director of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, stands next to a mountain of life vests at one of the resorts on the Illinois River.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic3.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic3.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic3-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic3-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/01\/PHOTO-1-21-Pic3-300x200.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\">Ed Fite, executive director of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, stands next to a mountain of life vests at one of the resorts on the Illinois River.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Ed Fite with the Scenic Rivers Commission <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/06\/04\/agency-that-protects-oklahomas-scenic-rivers-takes-another-big-budget-cut\/\" target=\"_blank\">talked to StateImpact last May <\/a>after the agency saw nearly a quarter of its budget from the previous year disappear, putting an important floodwater monitoring program on the chopping block, and fanning talk of agency consolidation that\u2019s only grown louder since.<\/p><p>\u201cWe cannot provide all the services that we have been accustomed to providing,\u201d Fite said. \u201cWe\u2019re down to four full-time employees. I would\u2019ve never thought that I would\u2019ve seen that when I went to work in 1983.\u201d<\/p><p>In an email exchange this month, Fite said the budget situation at the Scenic Rivers Commission has gotten so bad he can\u2019t even dismiss workers to save money, because the Commission can\u2019t afford to pay laid off employees for leave time they didn\u2019t use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil and gas are endangering the state\u2019s streams, soil, and wetlands. Not by polluting them \u2014 that\u2019s a different argument \u2014 but because plummeting oil prices have blown a billion dollar hole in Oklahoma\u2019s budget. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":25956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[486,468,644,42,620,600],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25947"}],"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=25947"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25982,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25947\/revisions\/25982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}