Water Supply Lakes - Eucha and Spavinaw Watersheds
Sooner Days:
In the early part of the twentieth century, Tulsa began to
establish itself as the main urban center of the region, outgrowing
such nearby communities as Sapulpa and Sand Springs. For Tulsans,
the primary source of water was the Arkansas River, which
distinguishes itself primarily by its high sediment-load and barely
tolerable salt content. A water pumping plant was built in 1904 to
deliver Arkansas river water to consumers. However, water that came
out of the tap was often so silty, it resembled chocolate syrup.
Because of the high gypsum and salt content, the water was
essentially unuseable for cooking or drinking.
Many rural residents dug wells for water, tapping the
irregularly distributed freshwater pools in the Paleozoic sandstone
and limestone formations of northeast Oklahoma. As often as not,
water wells produced only hard, salty water or turned dry after
only short periods of use.
Black Gold:
The 1900's and 1910's were boom days for Tulsa:
oil was found in abundance in every direction around the city.
Giant producers such as the nearby Glen Pool and Cushing fields
created wealth on an unprecedented scale and laid the groundwork
for cultural and economic developments that exist to this
day.
With oil bringing new people to the region (Tulsa eventually
became the home of more oil companies than any other place), demand
for drinking water became ever higher. Since no self-respecting
city should serve salty muddy river water to its visitors and
citizens, the decision was made to create a permanent,
high-quality, and reliable source of fresh water. |
| Lake Spavinaw Facts |
| Completed: |
1924 |
| Surface area: |
1,637 acres |
| Length: |
5.5 miles |
| Max. Width: |
0.75 miles |
| Shoreline: |
20 miles |
| Storage: |
31,686 acre-feet |
| Mean depth: |
29.8 feet |
| Dam Elevation: |
680 feet |
| Dam Length: |
3,500 feet |
|
Spavinaw Lake Spillway - Spavinaw Dam
In 1922,
work began on construction of a pipeline to Spavinaw, a hamlet
located 50 miles east and north of Tulsa. Here, the Spavinaw Creek
Dam created Spavinaw Lake, which was to become the primary source
of drinking water for the city for the next 55 years. Fed by
Spavinaw Creek, a crystal-clear perennial stream draining
400-square-mile area of unspoiled Ozark wilderness, the Spavinaw
Reservoir project promised to deliver an abundance of high-quality
drinking water to Tulsa.
For its time, the Spavinaw project was extremely ambitious. The
project cost $7.5 million ($262 million in todays money) for a town
with a population of about 70,000. Once completed, Spavinaw
Reservoir was the largest lake in Oklahoma (virtually all lakes in
Oklahoma are man-made reservoirs) and the pipeline carrying the
water to the city the longest in the U.S. at the time. The pipeline
became operational in 1924, when Spavinaw water first flowed to the
Mohawk pumping station for general consumption by Tulsans. Five
years later, treatment facilities were added at the water plant,
and the Mohawk Water Treatment Plant began processing Spavinaw
water.
No Salt, Please:
Tulsa's thirst for water continued to grow, as the
city expanded and incorporated surrounding developments, taking
over the local water supply systems and hooking them to the
Spavinaw water. In 1950, construction began on a second flowline to
Spavinaw. In order to assure the water supply from the reservoir, a
second lake was created with the construction of the Eucha Dam in
1952. Lake Eucha acts as an environmental and hydrologic buffer for
Lake Spavinaw, assuring a constant supply of clean water through
the connecting stream, which flows through a protected Scenic
Rivers area. The second Spavinaw pipeline became operational in
1954, doubling the raw water supply for the city.
|
|
| Lake Eucha Facts |
| Completed: |
1952 |
| Surface area: |
2,880 acres |
| Length: |
8.5 miles |
| Max. Width: |
0.7 miles |
| Shoreline: |
50 miles |
| Storage: |
80,000 acre-feet |
| Dam Elevation: |
778 feet |
| Dam Length: |
2,100 feet |
|
Lake Eucha Dam
