“Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
Those lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” tells of the quandary posed as a sailing ship is marooned in the doldrums of the southern Pacific, surrounded by water, none of it fit to drink.
Those of us in Oklahoma don’t have to worry about water. We have plenty. All we have to do is turn on the tap and the water flows. But what happens if one day we turn the tap and little or no water comes out?
Could it happen? Yes, say experts. They are warning the state’s apparent abundance of water could be a mirage. State officials say growing population and increased demand could spell trouble in the future.
The state Department of Commerce predicts the state’s population will grow by 17 percent in the next two decades, with 4.2 million residents by 2030.
Water use will grow at almost the same rate, climbing 14 percent, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By 2030, the Corps of Engineers estimates, Oklahoma will use more than 744 million gallons of water per year.
But water levels in the state’s bedrock aquifers are dropping, less than an inch in the case of the Ogallala aquifer in western Oklahoma, to 21.03 inches in the case of the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer in the southern part of the state.
As quantity is an issue, so is water quality. Federal rules for ground water contamination have tightened, including rules for naturally occurring arsenic — which has shut down water wells in Norman and Moore.
So what can we do? That is the question being pondered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and other agencies as they work on revamping the state’s water plan. That new plan is due by 2011.
We applaud the study and the fact it means so many people are taking water issues seriously. We would urge everyone to give thought to water — how we use it, where it comes from and the water-related issues we could be facing in the future.
