U.S. Water News Online
GLENCOE, Okla. -- A lake that provides water for thousands of Oklahomans in four counties will cease supplying drinkable water around Jan. 1 unless the region receives significant rainfall by then, authorities said.
Lone Chimney Lake is the sole or primary water source for the towns of Glencoe, Morrison, Yale, Blackburn, Skedee, Maramec and Terlton in north central Oklahoma. It also supplies 40 percent of the water used by the larger towns of Cleveland and Pawnee.
But prolonged drought has dropped the lake to the lowest level in its 21-year history.
"We're in a downright disastrous situation," Glencoe Mayor Jon Kuhn said.
The lake level is falling nearly an inch per day, said Paul Kinder, operations manager for the Lone Chimney Lake Association, composed of the lake's major water users.
"If you were standing right now where the water's edge is, normally your toes would be 10 feet under water," he said. Normally three miles in length, the lake is now half that.
Pawnee County commissioners declared a state of emergency on Nov. 6. The lake association board has raised water rates three times since January, hoping it would make users more conservation-minded.
With the latest increase, which takes effect Nov. 20, water prices will have tripled in 10 months.
"We have no way to enforce rationing...So all we can do is charge them higher rates," Kinder said.
Normally the lake level goes down in the summer but returns when fall rains recharge the springs that feed it. But this has not been a normal year.
Lone Chimney Lake is among three lakes statewide considered dangerously low, said Brian Vance, spokesman for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The others are Twin Lakes near Shawnee and Wiley Post Memorial Lake in McClain County, which is Maysville's main water source.
Only Twin Lakes is big enough to earn a spot on the state map.
Lone Chimney Lake was built to provide potable water, "although the fishermen will tell you it was built for them," said Kinder, who has worked there since its construction.
The drought has forced the water association board to deny new requests for bulk water from the town of Hallett and a Pawnee County rural water district.
Kinder said his board has looked at short-term and long-term remedies. The most pressing need, he said, is a floating pump barge, which would be installed at the lake's deepest point to drain water until the lake is bone dry.
"We found one channel where it's 40 feet deep," Kinder said. "That might buy us six more months" until anticipated spring rains arrive.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board is scheduled to consider the lake association's request for a $100,000 emergency grant. The state agency's staff has recommended approval.
Kinder estimated the project's total cost at $150,000, but the grant application indicates a total of $118,113.
The remaining money would come from the recent rate increases, Kinder said.
Long-range plans include tying into the water line that connects Stillwater to Kaw Lake. That would require laying 15 miles of 6-inch water line.
Kinder's bosses have applied for state and federal money to offset the $750,000 cost.
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