Water Supply Lakes - Oologah
Esprit de Corps:
In the 1960's and 1970's, the Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of a number of flood-control projects, among which the Oologah Dam and Lake Oologah. As Tulsa's water demands were once again rapidly increasing, TMUA obtained rights for water from lake Oologah, and construction began on a pipeline from the lake to the water treatment plant in 1976.
| | | Oologah Lake Facts | | Completed: | 1974 | | by Corps of Engineers | | Surface area: | 29,460 acres | | Shoreline: | 180 miles | | Storage: | 553,400 acre-feet | | Mean Depth: | 18.7 feet | | Watershed: | 4,339 sq. miles | |
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Protecting the Water Quality
The Lake Oologah watershed, an area of over 4000 square miles that extends into Kansas, was the scene of intense oil and gas exploration and production starting in 1905, and production still continues at some wells. Oil and gas were produced from the Bartlesville Sand formation, which is between 400 and 750 ft below the surface. On the Oklahoma side of the watershed alone, over 15,000 wells were drilled. Many of these were subsequently plugged, but many were abandoned without proper plugging. In addition, there are still many abandoned tanks and pumps, and some areas around the lake contain oil-contaminated soil.
In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission began a pilot project to locate and plug any remaining abandoned wells in the area around the lake. The goal is to restore the well sites as close as possible to their natural condition.
Approximately 200 wells were indentified in two sections in Rogers County, which will be plugged during the initial (pilot) project. The future cleanup zone includes wells in 40 additional sections along the entire eastern shore of Lake Oologah in Rogers and Nowata counties. The larger cleanup program may eventually plug more than a thousand wells near the lake.
The Corporation Commission coordinated preparations that included an aerial survey of site conditions, use of satellite imagery and global positioning system data to help locate the well sites and infrared photographs to identify oil spills, on-site examination of the wells to determine their physical condition, record searches to determine well history and ownership and getting site entry permission from land surface owners.
More details about this project can be found on the Oklahoma Conservation Commission website. The Oologah watershed does not have the sort of intense animal feeding operations that are prominent in the Eucha/Spavinaw watershed.
The Oologah Reservoir continues to be administered by the Army Corps of Engineers.
