OKC could spend $1 billion to get Sardis water

by M. Scott Carter

Published: August 9th, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City could be forced to spend more than $1 billion to bring water from the Sardis Lake Reservoir to central Oklahoma, astudy obtained by The Journal Record shows.

Though stalled by an ongoing federal lawsuit, Oklahoma City’s efforts to obtain additional water from southeastern Oklahoma are expected to continue, and the costs keep climbing. So far, the city has spent thousands to defend itself against the federal lawsuit filed by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and, in addition, another $27 million to purchase Sardis’ water storage rights and thousands more in maintenance charges for the reservoir.

And should city officials prove successful in their efforts to tap Sardis reservoir, the costs to get water from Sardis could jump dramatically.

Located more than 180 miles to the southeast of Oklahoma City, the Sardis Lake Reservoir stretches from Pushmataha County to Pittsburg and Latimer counties and holds about 156,800 acre-feet of water. Under the terms of the 2011 state contract that sold the reservoir’s water storage rights, the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust would be assigned 136,000 acre-feet, or roughly 44.3 billion gallons of that water. The facility is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And while Oklahoma City already has a 60-inch water main from Lake Stanley Draper to Lake Atoka, moving such a large quantity of water from Sardis back to the metropolitan area could require the construction of a second, larger pipe. Lake Atoka is 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City in Atoka County.

During a presentation to the Pottawatomie County commissioners in 2009, Brian Mitchell, a consultant from Camp, Dresser and McKee – the firm that helped write Oklahoma’s new water plan and worked as a consultant for Oklahoma City – said the cost to build a new, 90-inch pipeline paralleling the existing Atoka pipeline from Atoka to McGee Creek would hit about $1 billion. That pipeline would be used to move water from Sardis to central Oklahoma.

Another second major cost, Mitchell said, would be the cost of building a pipeline to move Sardis’ water to the existing McGee and Atoka lakes. The least-expensive alternative, Mitchell said, was to intercept the water at Moyers Crossing in Kiamichi County, but the infrastructure needed there would still cost more than $300 million.

Bob Jackman, a critic of the Sardis purchase, said he wasn’t surprised by the figures. He said water resources have become costly because they are vital to life.

“You’ve got to have water to live,” Jackman said.

Indeed, when Oklahoma City built the 60-inch pipeline from Lake Atoka to McGee Creek, final costs topped $60 million – about $416 million in today’s money.

And the pipeline needed for Sardis would be larger than the city’s existing ones. In his Shawnee presentation, Mitchell said the city would need to lay a 90-inch (seven and one-half feet tall) water pipe to bring water up from southeastern Oklahoma.

“You’re talking about a huge pipe,” said Norman utilities director Ken Kominski. “You’re piping a lot of water uphill.”

Other cities and towns could also tap into Sardis’ water.  While Oklahoma City officials point to the city’s anticipated growth over the next several decades as reason for the Sardis purchase, at least 14 other communities could access water from the reservoir should the lawsuit be resolved.

In his presentation, Mitchell said more than a dozen communities would likely take water from a central point such as Lake Stanley Draper. And those cities, Mitchell said in 2009, would need to decide soon if they wanted to be participants or customers in the Sardis deal.

For their part, Oklahoma City officials say they are still developing their plan.

Debbie Ragan, the spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust, said city officials were still hammering out the details for a plan to use the reservoir. Ragan said no decisions about how to bring water from southeastern Oklahoma to the Oklahoma City area had been made – yet.

But some work has already been done.

A May 16 presentation prepared for members of the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust indicates that a water availability analysis, a hydroelectric analysis, a conceptual design and the city’s recommended plan are almost complete. A second phase, which the presentation said is expected to begin late this year, will establish common design standards and standards for equipment and materials and develop construction sequences and schedules.

Costs, however, were not included.

“We don’t have a cost per take-out point at this time as the report is not final yet,” Ragan wrote in an email to The Journal Record.

Jackman predicted that the cost would be high.

“Getting water is expensive,” he said. “Sadly, a billion dollars for water is getting to be real common place.”