{"id":27779,"date":"2016-12-23T12:34:51","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T18:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27779"},"modified":"2016-12-23T12:34:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T18:34:51","slug":"from-the-desert-to-oklahomas-north-pole-a-woman-who-made-water-her-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/12\/23\/from-the-desert-to-oklahomas-north-pole-a-woman-who-made-water-her-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Desert to Oklahoma\u2019s North Pole, A Woman Who Made Water Her Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27783\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27783\" alt=\"Charlette Hearne at the North Pole Store, near Broken Bow, Okla. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/12\/PHOTO-12-23-HearnePic.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/12\/PHOTO-12-23-HearnePic.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/12\/PHOTO-12-23-HearnePic-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/12\/PHOTO-12-23-HearnePic-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/12\/PHOTO-12-23-HearnePic-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\">Charlette Hearne at the North Pole Store, near Broken Bow, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>The lakes and streams of southeast Oklahoma are vital to the area\u2019s economy, and Broken Bow resident Charlette Hearne has made it her mission to stand in the way of attempts to move water out of her part of the state.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/299323821&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><p><!--more--><\/p><p>It\u2019s Christmas season in North Pole, Okla., a blip on the map near Broken Bow. No one\u2019s sure how this community along State Highway 3 got that name, but Charlette Hearne embraces the community at her North Pole convenience store, and holiday decorations abound. Hearne is from Colorado, but fell in love with Broken Bow Lake back in the 1970s.<\/p><p>\u201cI was attracted to Broken Bow because you could ski and read the fine print on the skis five foot down in the water,\u201d she says. I mean, it was so clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Holy Land epiphany<\/h3><p>Hearne\u2019s water advocacy roots go back to a trip she made to Israel and Jordan with her family, most of whom forgot to pack water for a desert crossing one afternoon.<\/p><p>\u201cAs we drove for hours through the desert, we became thirstier and thirstier, and realized those people traveling on those camels \u2014 all around us they had no water,\u201d Hearne says. \u201cIt just kind of was magnifying the need and how fortunate in America we were, and how we should preserve that life-sustaining water.\u201d<\/p><p>Since then, Hearne has become one of the most vocal forces behind the resistance to out of state water transfers and the effort to pipe water from Sardis Lake to Oklahoma City. She\u2019s organized thousands in southeast Oklahoma to rally around that cause. In the early 1980s, Hearne rallied local residents together against a Texas developer trying to get a permit to build a tubing and river rafting resort along the lakeshore.<\/p><p>\u201cWe opposed it and requested an Army Corps of Engineers hearing. At that hearing we had more than 700 people come,\u201d she says. \u201cSo at that time, we made a statement that we care about Broken Bow Lake, we care about our water, and we will do what it takes to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Water wanted<\/h3><p><a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/tarrant-vs-herrmann\/\">In the early 2000s, Texas was back with a plan to quench the growing Dallas area\u2019s thirst<\/a> with water from southeast Oklahoma. Hearne wasn\u2019t having it.<\/p><p>\u201cWe formed the Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance, and in that we went to all 22 counties of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations and formed independent SOWA chapters,\u201d Hearne says. \u201cWe developed a huge membership, and we would lobby.\u201d<\/p><p>Hearne says it was at a Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance meeting that the idea for the 2002 moratorium on out of state water sales was first developed. <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/06\/13\/supreme-court-sides-with-oklahoma-in-tarrant-v-herrman\/\">Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas didn\u2019t get the water it wanted<\/a>. But it wasn\u2019t long before another plan to move water out of southeast Oklahoma was being pushed. This time, <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/tribal-water-lawsuit\/\">Oklahoma City wanted to pipe water from Sardis Lake to meet its future water needs<\/a>. Choctaw Nation officials wanted Hearne\u2019s help again.<\/p><p>\u201cThis was after we had actually told Texas \u2018no you can&#8217;t have our water.\u2019 And so I was really satisfied to stay at home. And all of a sudden you start hearing rumblings of the huge, massive transfer of water out of Sardis,\u201d Hearne says. \u201cChief Baton now \u2014 and at that time he was the assistant chief \u2014 was holding meetings in communities in the area. And I didn&#8217;t go, and I didn&#8217;t go, and finally a lot of the SOWA people called me and said \u2018Charlette you have to come.\u2019 So I kind of dragged myself over there just to listen and see what was going on and left as president of the organization that same day.\u201d<\/p><p>The organization was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.orwp.net\/\">Oklahomans for Responsible Water Policy<\/a>, which Hearne says has grown to more than 16,000 members. The group fully backed the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in their lawsuit against the state over who should have control over water across southeast Oklahoma. The case was <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/08\/12\/inside-the-landmark-state-and-tribal-agreement-that-ends-standoff-over-water-in-southeast-oklahoma\/\">settled in the summer of 2016<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/12\/19\/obama-signs-bill-that-officially-end-southeast-oklahomas-tribal-water-fight\/\">approved by President Obama<\/a> in December. It limits how much water Oklahoma City can take from Sardis, and gives the tribal nations a seat at the table when decisions about the area\u2019s water are made.<\/p><p>Hearne recently stepped down from the water advocacy group due to health problems. She says that should not be taken as a sign she\u2019s happy with the tribal water agreement.<\/p><p>\u201cIf I were truly happy we wouldn&#8217;t be giving them one drop of water unless they were thirsty,\u201d Hearne says. \u201cI am all for science moving us forward, and I think that you should use every drop of water available to you, which includes re-use, conservation, the water under your feet, before you start robbing from your neighbor. So we want science to lead the way. And I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any of us that would love to see anyone go thirsty, even a Texan. We\u2019d carry them a barrel of water.\u201d<\/p><p>Hearne has won most of the water fights she\u2019s been in, but says southeast Oklahoma\u2019s water still isn\u2019t safe from outsiders. Hearne says the real test for the new tribal water agreement won\u2019t come until the state\u2019s next major \u2014 and inevitable drought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lakes and streams of southeast Oklahoma are vital to the area\u2019s economy, and Broken Bow resident Charlette Hearne has made it her mission to stand in the way of attempts to move water out of her part of the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[107,108,364,163,538,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779"}],"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=27779"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27787,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27779\/revisions\/27787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}