Texas group sues over water sale ban
KRISTV.com

January 11, 2007-A Texas water district sued the state of Oklahoma on Thursday, arguing a
moratorium on out-of-state water sales violates federal law.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City
by the Tarrant Regional Water District, which serves 1.6 million people, including residents of
Fort Worth and Arlington in North Texas.

It names the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the Oklahoma Water Conservation Storage
Commission.

An initial hearing on the suit was set for 10 a.m. on Jan. 23 before U.S. Judge Joe Heaton in
Oklahoma City.

The Texas governmental agency argues a moratorium passed by the Oklahoma Legislature to bar
exporting water to other states violates the federal commerce clause. The moratorium was
approved in 2002 and extended in legislation passed in 2006.

The lawsuit seeks a restraining order to prevent the Water Resource Board from using the
moratorium as a basis for rejecting the sale of Oklahoma water to the Texas entity.

It argues Oklahoma has allocated only 7.6 percent of the 34 million acre feet of water that flows
out of the state each year into the Red River and Arkansas River in southeastern Oklahoma.

"Oklahoma has no basis upon which to predict, and has not predicted that it will suffer any water
shortage in the near or even distant future," the lawsuit says. "Indeed the OWRB has repeatedly
affirmed that Oklahoma has more than sufficient resources to meet its need."

It says Oklahoma's moratorium has "an unconstitutional economic protectionist purpose."
Duane Smith, director of the Water Resources Board, said the agency is in the midst of
developing a statewide 50-year water plan. He said many areas of the state are in need of water.

"Our comprehensive water plan is for Oklahomans, not water planning for Texas," Smith said.

"The Legislature was very clear in passing the moratorium about out-of-state water transport and
we're going to do our very best to adhere to that law."

Smith said his agency would ask Attorney General Drew Edmondson to represent the board in
defending the moratorium.

Edmondson's office was not named in the lawsuit, which cites a 1978 attorney general's opinion
which states:

"Water use within Oklahoma should be developed to the maximum extent feasible for the benefit
of Oklahoma so that out-of-state downstream users will not acquire vested rights therein to the
detriment of the citizens of Oklahoma."

Edmondson said he had not read the suit and it was not discussed at a meeting he and Water
Board liaison Kelly Hunter Burk had Wednesday with two representatives of the Tarrant County
group.

He said that meeting revolved around what the Texas group was seeking in its application for
Oklahoma water.

Edmondson said he was not surprised that the issue is winding up in court, but he was "a little
surprised that we would be litigating it so quickly."

"I'm fairly confident that our moratorium can be defended against constitutional attack because it
is not a permanent ban," the Oklahoma attorney general said.

Jim Oliver, general manager of the Texas water district, said his group would entertain a
settlement with Oklahoma.

"We'd be willing to sign a contract that if Oklahoma ever needs this water back, we'd give it up,"
Oliver said.

He argued that Oklahoma has more than enough water for its needs, however. "There's enough
water in the Kiamichi River basin alone to serve four times the population of Oklahoma," Oliver
said.

Oklahoma's water plan is scheduled to be finished in 2010, Smith said. The lawsuit questions
whether the state is acting in good faith.

The lawsuit was filed on the same day the Texas group made three permit applications with
water regulators in Oklahoma seeking to purchase a total of 460,000 acre feet of water per year.

The suit said that amount is one-ninth of the amount that would otherwise be discharged into the
Gulf of Mexico and "lost to beneficial use"

It says the Texas water district has a population base that will more than double by 2060, with
water needs exceeding supply.