{"id":26744,"date":"2016-06-16T13:17:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=26744"},"modified":"2016-06-16T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:17:10","slug":"fallin-gave-southeast-oklahoma-a-seat-on-water-board-but-skips-deadline-to-fill-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/06\/16\/fallin-gave-southeast-oklahoma-a-seat-on-water-board-but-skips-deadline-to-fill-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Fallin Gave Southeast Oklahoma a Seat on Water Board, But Skips Deadline to Fill It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26751\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26751\" alt=\"Atoka Lake in southeast Oklahoma, a focal point of the controversy over who controls water in that part of the state.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/PHOTO-6-16-AtokaLake1-e1466097656288.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/PHOTO-6-16-AtokaLake1-e1466097656288.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/PHOTO-6-16-AtokaLake1-e1466097656288-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/PHOTO-6-16-AtokaLake1-e1466097656288-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/06\/PHOTO-6-16-AtokaLake1-e1466097656288-300x200.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\">Atoka Lake in southeast Oklahoma, a focal point of the controversy over who controls water in that part of the state.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Southeast Oklahoma has many of the state\u2019s largest lakes and rivers and much of the state\u2019s water, but no one from the area serves on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the state\u2019s water regulator. <a title=\"OKlegLink\" href=\"http:\/\/webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us\/cf_pdf\/2013-14%20ENR\/SB\/SB965%20ENR.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">A 2013 law requires<\/a> the area to have representation. But, so far, that hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/269450615&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>\n<h3>Water but no rep<\/h3><p>\u201cSoutheastern Oklahoma, Region 9, deserves representation in accordance with Senate Bill 965,\u201d Russell Doughty, with water advocacy group Oklahomans for Responsible Water Policy, said before politely storming out of last months meeting of the OWRB.<\/p><p>SB 965 was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mary Fallin in 2013. It changes the way the nine-member OWRB is appointed. Before, the governor named a board member from each of the state\u2019s five congressional districts, and four at-large positions from any region. The new law divided the board into nine districts \u2014 each getting one seat on the water board.<\/p><p>The law set a May 2016 deadline for Fallin to appoint a member from southeast Oklahoma, but she hasn&#8217;t done it.<\/p><p>State Rep. Brian Renegar, a McAlester Democrat who co-authored the bill, thinks he knows why.<\/p><p>\u201cI think it is probably nothing more than Governor Fallin trying to penalize the Choctaw and Chickasaw \u2014 most of their people live down in this area \u2014 for filing that lawsuit against the State of Oklahoma,\u201d Renegar says.<\/p><p><a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/tribal-water-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\">StateImpact has reported on the controversy surrounding Atoka and Sardis Lakes<\/a>, and the 100-mile pipeline that brings water from southeast Oklahoma to the OKC metro. The Choctaws and Chickasaws say they should control the water in the area, but so does the state and Oklahoma City. The tribes sued the city, governor and OWRB. The lawsuit has been ongoing for five years now.<\/p><p>\u201cHer excuse is she doesn\u2019t want to do it until the lawsuit is over with. Well, that doesn\u2019t make any difference,\u201d Renegar says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.42857142857142%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/2863237-Senate-Bill-965-2013.html?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false\" title=\"Senate-Bill-965-2013 (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><p>Former state Senator Jerry Ellis was one of the bill\u2019s co-authors, and he says it was difficult to get water-rich southeast Oklahoma a spot on the powerful board that manages permitting, water quality monitoring, dam safety, and more. They won that fight, but still haven\u2019t gotten the trophy.<\/p><p>\u201cYou\u2019ve had two or three from Tulsa, a couple or three from the Oklahoma City area, and they\u2019ve just corned the representation is what they\u2019ve done,\u201d Ellis says.<\/p>\n<h3>Punishment or procedure?<\/h3><p>The way Ellis and Renegar tell it, Southeast Oklahoma fought for representation on the board for years, only to have a vengeful governor break the law they fought for to keep big cities in control and punish the tribes for daring to challenge the state. But OWRB Executive Director J.D. Strong, says hold on. The truth is much more innocent, and far less dramatic.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen it now under three different governors, the fact that they sometimes don\u2019t get around to making these appointments right away when they expire,\u201d Strong says. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s particularly challenging with the Water Board appointments because they expire in May, and that happens to be probably the busiest time of year for governor and legislature.\u201d<\/p><p>He cites an attorney general\u2019s opinion from 1998 that says incumbents can stay in office until their replacement is sworn in, even after their term is technically over. And there\u2019s no limit on how long the governor can wait. In 2015, Fallin reappointed an OWRB member whose term had been expired for three years.<\/p><p>\u201cRight now everybody is up to date and up to speed on the board that I can recall, with the exception of Ed Fite \u2014 his term expired last May \u2014 and Richard Sevenoaks\u2019 term only expired last month,\u201d Strong says. \u201cSo we\u2019re not really in the grand scheme of things that far behind relative to what I\u2019ve seen in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Advocates not appeased<\/h3><p>Appointments to the water board must be ratified by the state Senate, so Fallin&#8217;s next opportunity won&#8217;t come until February 2017, when next year&#8217;s legislative session starts.<\/p><p>In an email to StateImpact, Fallin\u2019s office says\u00a0current OWRB members will stay in their posts, even if their terms are over.<\/p><p>Southeast Oklahoma water advocates say it might be time to ask the state attorney general to take another look at whether that\u2019s allowed.<\/p><p>Former Senator Ellis isn\u2019t satisfied. He doesn\u2019t understand Fallin\u2019s inaction. After all, she signed the bill into law herself.<\/p><p>\u201cPoor leadership,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cMy belief is she\u2019s not acting like the CEO of the state should act. I think she needs to honor what she signed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southeast Oklahoma has many of the state\u2019s largest lakes and rivers and most of the state\u2019s water, but no one from the area serves on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the state\u2019s water regulator. A 2013 law requires the area to have representation. But, so far, that hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[162,53,163,538,427,93],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744"}],"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=26744"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26770,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26744\/revisions\/26770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}