Ozarks Water Watch attended the Tri-State Water Resource Coalition (TSWRC) conference November 17 and 18 in Springfield, MO titled "Securing Our Water Future". TSWRC is a nonprofit (501c4) organization whose mission is to secure adequate, quality drinking water supplies for the next generation in southwest Missouri, the northeast corner of Oklahoma, and the southeast corner of Kansas. The coalition is made up of regional cities, towns, counties, utilities, water providers, businesses and interested individuals.

The conference, which lasted a day and a half, covered a number of topics and featured many diverse speakers including: utility operators, city managers, lawyers specializing in water law in the tri-state region, weather specialists, representatives from the Department of Natural Resources, civil engineers and more. There were so many topics covered that I won't have time to cover them all in this article.

Tri-State Water Resource Coalition Conference 11/18/11.

So what did I learn from all these speakers and what meaningful knowledge did I come away with? The first big question I wanted to answer is "how can we have a water quantity issue with the abundance of water that we have here in the Ozarks? With all of our lakes, rivers, streams, and springs, do we really need to worry about water shortages here"?  In fact, the answer is a definite yes.

Most of the communities in our region rely on underground aquifers, drawing from them as their main source of water. As the population continues to grow, more wells get drilled and more "straws" get added to the aquifer, which though seemingly abundant here in the Ozarks, is ultimately a limited common resource. Communities, businesses, industries and agriculture all need large amounts of water. Experts say that if we have a few dry years (which would fit with our historically cyclical periods of prolonged droughts); we may potentially be faced with a water shortage in a little as 10 to 15 years. Water conservation, which is not locally common place, but seriously needed, would help reduce the drain on this vital resource and delay the inevitable shortfall, but it is not a complete solution.

(For information on over 100 ways to save water, click: Here)

Where do we find more water for our future needs? Conservation and the creation of new reservoirs are certainly part of the discussion. Another probable solution is to find adequate supplies of water from existing impoundments. The existing surface water identified as possible sources are Grand Lake in Oklahoma, and Stockton Lake and Table Rock Lake in Missouri. Springfield already gets a portion of their water from Stockton Lake, and Branson is currently utilizing Lake Taneycomo. At the current time Table Rock Lake and Grand Lake arenot being utilized as sources for drinking water.  

No doubt the thought of asking congress to allow Table Rock Lake to become a drinking water reservoir makes some people very uncomfortable. As a citizen who lives on the lake I was among the group very concerned about this. Some of the questions people may have include; how would this affect the water level, who would get the water, how would we limit the amount taken and who would make those decisions.

One thing that eased my mind a great deal is that the amount of water that would be allocated for drinking water would be minimal. The amount being discussed per year is the equivalent of the amount that would be evaporated on one hot, sunny day. It is also probable that some or all of this may come from the portion that is currently designated for power generation. In addition there would be more resources for protecting the water quality of Table Rock Lake if it were designated as a drinking water source. This would make keeping it clean a little easier. In any case, it would require an act of congress to make it such.

Top - Proposed Allocation / Bottom - Current Allocation

I guess the big take-away for me is the reality that we need to have some grown up conversations about this now. It takes about 20 years for plans being discussed to come to fruition. We need to prepare now for a future that includes a plentiful supply of clean fresh water to drink as well as plenty for all the other important purposes for which we rely on clean water in our lakes and rivers.

Float on Bull Creek

You can access several of the power-point presentations from the conference on the TSWRC website in the near future at http://www.tristatewater.org