Action Items

Surveys

Utility Providers: take the Water Supply Infrastructure Needs Survey (WSINS) here!   

Participate TODAY.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

From the Planning Director:

OCWP Highlights

Infrastructure Needs Surveys

Utility Providers: the Water Supply Infrastructure Needs Survey (WSINS) is now open! Survey CLOSES January 30!

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) has teamed with Freese and Nichols, Inc. to complete the WSINS to identify water infrastructure needs for the 2025 Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan (OCWP). You, along with other communities, will help demonstrate the need to maintain current water infrastructure funding in Oklahoma, and potentially seek additional funds, to state and federal lawmakers.

The Clean Water Needs Survey (CWNS) for wastewater infrastructure has now closed, as data collection is complete. The system information we receive from these water and wastewater surveys will give us a far more accurate description of the expected needs and shortfalls across the state. Our OCWP team will then use this information to identify the OCWP Focus Basins and will develop long-term water management strategies and recommend local solutions in funding, policy, and legislation.

USACE Awards OWRB $1,200,000 PAS&T

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has awarded a third installment from its Planning Assistance to States & Tribes program to the OWRB to enhance the 2025 Oklahoma Water Plan! While funds are limited and competitive across the nation, the SWD Tulsa District has been a critical partner that made this happen!

With the additional expertise of the Corps and its contractors, the PAS&T program gives the OWRB the ability to fulfill many critical tasks and subtasks among our long list of priority analyses, studies, and engagement we are striving to accomplish by 2025. 

To date, USACE has been instrumental in our efforts by funding the 2025 OCWP Programmatic Work Plan and the Water Infrastructure Needs Survey announced above.

Data and Modeling

Fifty-year consumptive demand projections by watershed basin are in process awaiting final population projections from the 2020 Census. It is anticipated that projections will be released in late spring of 2023 for all 82 planning basins. Once projections are complete, we will apply the water supply evaluations for both the physical water availability, as well as permit capacity for future needs in each basin. The OCWP supply and demand model will serve as the baseline for almost everything we do in the 2025 process, such as identifying OCWP Focus Basins, applying what-if scenarios and developing water management strategies for drought and flood or perhaps nonconsumptive demand scenarios in Scenic Rivers, etc.

Engagement

In 2022, the OCWP Planning Team held numerous meetings with state officials, water professionals, city representatives, farmers, and others to begin addressing the state's most pressing water issues. To date, four workgroups have been formed focusing on the critical topics of irrigation, water workforce development, water reuse, and source water protection.