Groundwater in the News

KOSU | By Lionel Ramos

Published February 9, 2026 at 5:00 AM CST

Among the largest single recurring budget requests before lawmakers this year is the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s $50 million investment into fixing the state’s dire water infrastructure needs. One state senator hopes his bill will jumpstart the work.

Officials with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, or OWRB, estimate the state’s water infrastructure crisis will cost taxpayers up to $24 billion by 2030.

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By Kayla Branch
kayla@readfrontier.com

State regulators are reviewing a proposal to expand sand mining over the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, despite Oklahoma’s moratorium on new mines in the area.

January 8, 2026

Michael Hearrell worries that a proposed mine two miles his home will dry up his water well.

Hearrell, a retired pilot, has lived around Roff, a town of just over 600 outside of Ada, his whole life. The town is dotted with a few gas stations, a senior center and a short Main Street that is home to the public school. Roff is also surrounded by mining operations, thanks to the sand reserves nearby.

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By Kristin Rodin

Published: Oct. 20, 2025 at 11:28 AM CDT

GUYMON, Okla. (KFDA) - In Guymon, Oklahoma, the city is currently constructing the Mesa Water Project.

The project will secure Guymon and Texas County water for decades to come following water scarcity issues. We’re shining the Community Spotlight on the project.

You can listen to the full interview on the KFDA website at https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/10/20/mesa-water-project-meet-demand-guymon-ok/

By Chloe Bennett-Steele | StateImpact Oklahoma

Published October 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM CDT

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is using emergency funds to help remediate the site at Five Mile Creek. A trench and pit were dug to collect the fluid and divert it away from water bodies.

Wildlife and a number of cattle were reported to have died on private property near Colony and Eakly after the contamination, according to a document filed with the OCC in mid-September.

A letter from Gov. Kevin Stitt, issued in response to the pollution, authorized the agency to use emergency funds to remediate the site. Tanker trucks are hauling away the diverted fluid to avoid other water contamination.

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OK Energy Today

October 1, 2025

Saltwater leaking into a creek might have been what caused the deaths of 25 head of cattle earlier this month in Caddo County, Oklahoma.

Corporation Commission investigators discovered the saltwater was purging into Five Mile Creek from a site two miles upstream from the farmer’s livestock. The Commission asked two oil-and-gas operators close to the purge “to shut in their gas wells” on September 16, reported the Southwest Ledger.

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by Robert Hagan | OKC Fox25

Mon, September 22nd 2025 at 11:05 PM

Oklahoma City, Okla. — An Oklahoma lawmaker is intensifying efforts to halt the use of biosolids, also known as humanure, as fertilizer on farmland due to health concerns linked to "forever chemicals."

Representative Jim Shaw has been vocal about the potential risks, stating, "We here in Oklahoma as a legislative body haven't somehow figured out that this is a legitimate risk to food production, to clean water, and to the benefit of the overall health of the state of Oklahoma."

Read the full article here.

An investigation is underway in western Oklahoma after a rancher reported that contaminated water may be responsible for the deaths of his cattle.

By Meghan Mosley | KOCO News 5

6:08 PM CDT Sep 18, 2025

EAKLY, Okla. — An investigation is underway in western Oklahoma after rancher Mike Loula reported that contaminated water along Five Mile Creek, near Eakly, may be responsible for the deaths of his cattle, threatening his livelihood.

"First, I noticed right here before they dug the pit, there was a hole and it was just setting there bubbling, and boiling, and that’s when I kinda decided it's going in the creek somewhere, but we gotta find it," Loula said.

OK Energy Today

Published September 15, 2025

A plan by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board to cut the amount of water farmers and ranchers in northwestern Oklahoma can use drew users to a recent public hearing in Mooreland.

The hearing focused on the board’s first major update to groundwater permit limits since 1983 and drew the attention of several farmers and ranchers from Major and Harper counties. The change was the result of decreasing supplies of groundwater in northwest Oklahoma.

The new plan will cut allocations for new groundwater permits from one acre-foot per acre a year to half that amount. It was the result of decreasing supplies of groundwater in northwest Oklahoma. But some landowners are critical of the new plan.

The Woodward News pointed out that existing groundwater permits won’t be affected but those drilling new water wells will face tighter restrictions.

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By Amanda Parks, Staff Writer | The Woodward News

Published September 13, 2025

WOODWARD, Okla. — Farmers and ranchers from Mooreland and across Major and Harper counties packed a public hearing this week as the Oklahoma Water Resources Board reviewed its first major update to groundwater permit limits since 1983.

At issue: a proposed order that would cut allocations for new groundwater permits from one acre-foot per acre annually to about half that amount. The change comes after a long-anticipated update to the agency’s maximum annual yield study for the Beaver-North Canadian River groundwater basin.

OK Energy Today

September 10, 2025

NORIT Activated Carbon (NORIT), a global leader in purification technologies with an operation located in Pryor, Oklahoma has validated that its thermal reactivation process is capable of consistently achieving 99.98% destruction of PFAS compounds in spent granular activated carbon from municipal water treatment applications.