U.S. Water News Online
BROKEN BOW, Okla. -- Charlette Hearne's canoe charges up the Glover River, past hickories and oaks, until the river turns to rocks and she grates to a halt. This is what bothers her about selling water to Texas.
``I don't think THAT'S going to fill a 6-foot pipe,'' she says, eyeing the thin flow over the gravel bed. ``In June, it just dries up.''
She sees no water to spare here. What water does flow from southeast Oklahoma, she'd rather see lost to the Red River than piped to Texas under a compact between Oklahoma and Texas expected to be revealed soon by state and tribal leaders.
Open that tap, says this former dental hygienist who leads the compact opposition, and Texas might lay claim to the water forever.
``It's not that they need our water. It's not a humanitarian situation right now,'' she says. ``They're just water hogs. There's no conservation. None.''
No one knows for sure how much water Oklahoma can afford to sell -- hydrologic studies are expected to be complete before the Legislature considers the compact in February.
But proponents see water flowing from six river basins into the briny Red River as wasted excess. And they see an impoverished and forgotten corner of Oklahoma that desperately could use what Texas might be willing to pay.
``If it's used right and protected right,'' says Choctaw Chief Greg Pyle, ``it could help keep our children from moving to the cities. Maybe if it's used right, it could bring prosperity to southeast Oklahoma.''
Oklahoma uses less than 2 percent of the 5.7 billion gallons of water flowing every day from 22 southeast Oklahoma counties, said Bob Rabon, an attorney and Hugo native who represented the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in talks with the state.
Five Texas utilities propose taking 160 million gallons a day under a 99-year contract, he said.
The contract with Texas will mandate curtailment or stop the flow if Oklahoma needs the water, Rabon said. And Oklahoma will control the tap.
The tribes claim authority to the region's water under an 1830s federal treaty. Legal experts hired by the state disputed that but suggested negotiating was better than litigating.
The tribes and the state have agreed to split the profits from any water sales and say they'll use the funds to better southeast Oklahoma.
But that doesn't satisfy Hearne's group, the Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance.
``It's a right being taken away from every citizen in the state, not just us,'' said Sam Richards, a rancher whose land hugs the Mountain Fork River in McCurtain County.
His neighbors, poultry farmers Kirk and Janet McCoy, also are adamantly opposed.
Standing at the edge of the Mountain Fork, Kirk McCoy proclaims it the ``purest stream in the whole United States,'' scoops water in his hands and drinks.
``Why would you sell the best you have?'' he asks. ``Why would you not save it for the people?''
Any economic boom, they predict, will only come to Dallas, Fort Worth, and other north Texas communities that will be able to expand on Oklahoma water.
The group members don't think Texas will prove a good neighbor and predict water wars in court, like those pitting Kansas against Colorado and Nebraska.
Their biggest fear is that Texas could one day claim dependence on the Oklahoma water in court and suck southeast Oklahoma dry.
``There is no such thing as surplus water,'' said Harold Witcher, an Atoka attorney. ``It's a figment of their imaginations. In July and August you can walk across the Kiamichi River and not get your shoes wet in some places.''
Hearne, who is building vacation cabins on her beloved Glover River, said the group has hundreds of members and its numbers are growing through organizational meetings in the affected counties.
Duane Smith, the executive director the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and ta rget of many of the group's complaints, said he wants Oklahomans to read the compact before drawing conclusions.
All of the work went on behind closed doors, something Smith says was necessary to keep the negotiations flowing.
``It's a very difficult process to negotiate a contract in public when it changes at virtually any meeting that's done,'' he said.
The deal must pass muster with the tribal legislatures, the Oklahoma Legislature, and the federal government. There are environmental studies remaining, including the impact on endangered species in the region.
Meanwhile, the North Texas Water Alliance is considering other options for getting water in Texas. With the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth area expected to nearly double from 5 million in 50 years, the utilities would like to see Oklahoma approve a contract this session and for the water to start flowing in five years, said alliance spokesman Jim Parks.
``We remain optimistic we will be able to effect a contract that is mutually beneficial to both communities,'' he said.
The complexity of the water issues raises ``so many opportunities for it not to reach fruition,'' Rabon said. Despite more than year of trying to come to terms, he considers the expected challenges ahead and finds himself quoting a comment made by a Choctaw official when negotiations faltered.
``We haven't sold any water for 100 years,'' he says. ``If we don't sell any for another 100 years, that will be all right.''
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