Texas water district seeks permit to obtain Oklahoma water
Durant Daily Democrat

November 19, 2007-A water district that serves 25 north Texas communities has filed a new application with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board seeking to obtain more than 37 billion gallons of Oklahoma water each year.

The Upper Trinity Regional Water Districts second request, filed Monday, asks for water from Choctaw Countys Boggy Creek Basin, while the other requests that amount from the Kiamichi River near Hugo Lake.

“We definitely are not interested in water that the Oklahoma people need. But we want to be available as a partner to conserve this water. Right now, this water is lost. Its leaving the state without any benefit to anyone,” said Thomas Taylor, Upper Trinitys executive director.

Taylor said his group filed the second application because “the traffic may be getting a bit too thick” for water from the Kiamichi Basin.

Another Texas group, the Tarrant Regional Water District, applied in January to take 310,000 acre-feet, or more than 100 billion gallons per year from that basin. Oklahoma City also filed an application this year for 26 billion gallons a year from the same basin.

“With so much interest in the Kiamichi, there could be a concern that youre about to outstrip the Kiamichi. It appears to us to be a lot of excess water in the Boggy Creek Basin,” Thomas said.

Both of the groups' applications seek “excess” water before it reaches the Red River, where it becomes too salty to use as drinking water without expensive treatment.

Upper Trinity serves cities and towns mainly in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Its largest cities are Irving, Denton and Lewisville.

In 2001, legislators stopped a Keating administration proposal to sell Oklahoma water to several Texas water districts, including the Upper Trinity district, and split the profits with the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations.