The Oklahoma legislature is considering closer monitoring of water use. The Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee advanced two bills that would add metering requirements for cannabis growers and some other irrigators.
Sen. Brent Howard (R-Altus) introduced Senate Bill 1341, which aims to enable more regulation and understanding of how commercial irrigators use Oklahoma’s underground water stores.
“The surface water is basically owned or regulated by the state,” he told the committee. “Groundwater is owned by the individuals, but it is subject to regulation by the state. We're trying to get some teeth behind that, some coordination between those two.”
Although irrigators have rights to the groundwater beneath their land, they can only use enough to cover their property in two feet of water each year. But when it comes time to report their usage to the state, irrigators simply write down their best estimate in good faith.
Read more at: www.kosu.org