By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer

Conservationists say a sky-high fence should have been built separating the dry windy plains of Oklahoma from people who yearned to live here.

Not enough water, they said when the state was new. Not enough now.

The term “blue gold” was coined for that resource predicted to become more valuable than the black gold of oil. That notion was underscored at the Governor’s Water Conference held earlier in the month to which Canadian County Floodplain Manager Amy Brandley attended, reporting back to county commissioners.

“It’s generally agreed there will be less water available to use in the future,” she said. “A sobering and scary thought.”

Besides an individual Oklahoman using up more water than the same person did a decade ago, problems range from coping with a 10-year drought cycle to stringent water quality requirements faced by municipalities and rural water districts coming from federal environmentalists.

A comprehensive water plan study was recently funded by the state Legislature. The state’s water plan has not been updated since 1995. Officials say for the first time in the state’s history they can develop “system-level projects” that can provide the most water to the most Oklahomans.

The conference, sponsored by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, brought together “water people” from across the state to the water planning process to hear water user concerns from the municipalities, agricultural interests and industrial and soil conservation interests.

In Canadian County, three cities on the eastern tier get water from an aquifer that is too high in levels of arsenic and depend in large measure on Oklahoma City water. County officials were instrumental in initiating the search for an alternative water source for cities and towns in the county by forming Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority several years ago.

After rejecting and being thwarted on potential sources outside the county, COWRA is now focusing on the sandy deposits of the South Canadian River, tapping in near Union City.

Commissioner Phil Carson said they must continue to be aggressive with the plans that could take years to materialize. COWRA meets on the third Thursday each month at noon in Yukon city offices.

He said the water issue has many facets of concern, not the least of which is infrastructure. For instance, “Reservoirs throughout the state are filling in with silt,” he said.

A persistent drought through the 2005 winter and 2006 summer was the worst since the dust bowl era, officials were saying in August, the effect of which was reduced river flows and lake and aquifer levels, impacting municipal water supplies and yields from domestic wells. The governor proclaimed a drought emergency in Oklahoma.

The difference between the dust bowl and this year is smarter conservation management of soil and water now in use.

This is the third year of a 10-year drought cycle, Brandley said, but thank goodness, “Conservation efforts have changed farming practices.”