Opinion ID: 2543215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Oklahoma's Groundwater Statutes

Text: ¶ 27 The OWRB asserts that the Legislature, in regulating groundwater, has classified groundwater basins as minor basins and major basins and that the challenged legislation is a further classification for the protection of basins that supply drinking water for communities. The OWRB argues that the challenged legislation is sound management and stewardship of unique aquifers within the current regulatory system of allocation for reasonable use. ¶ 28 An overview of the groundwater statutes is helpful in our analysis of the challenged legislation. In 1949, the Oklahoma Legislature enacted the Oklahoma Ground Water Law to regulate the taking and use of ground water in order to conserve and protect the ground water resources of the State. [7] The 1949 law restricted landowners to withdrawing only the safe annual yield of a basin as measured by its average annual recharge. 82 O.S.1951, § 1015; Okla. Water Resources Bd. v. Texas County Irrigation and Water Resources, 1984 OK 96, ¶ 6, 711 P.2d 38, 41. The Legislature determined that the ground water regulation served the interest of agricultural stability, domestic, municipal, industrial and other beneficial uses, general economy, health and welfare of the State and its citizens. . . . 82 O.S.1951, § 1003. ¶ 29 In 1972, the Oklahoma Legislature repealed the 1949 Ground Water Law [8] and enacted a new statutory scheme to utilize the groundwater resources of the state. The 1949 conservation policy was replaced by a reasonable utilization policy. Okla. Water Resources Bd. v. Texas County Irrigation and Water Resources, 711 P.2d at 41. The 1972 legislation provided for the allocation for reasonable use based on hydrologic surveys of fresh ground water basins or subbasins to determine a restriction on the production, based upon the acres overlying the ground water basin or subbasin. 82 O.S.Supp.1972, § 1020.2. In the 1972 enactment, the Oklahoma Legislature declared that a water utilization policy was necessary for the health and welfare of the state and its citizens. Id. ¶ 30 Enacted in the exercise of the Legislature's police power, the current groundwater law, 82 O.S.2001, §§ 1020.1 et seq., is the 1972 regulatory regime for the reasonable utilization of the state's groundwater resources and the subsequent amendments thereto. The challenged amendments impose a moratorium against the transfer of water for out-of-basin municipal and public use and interject a conservation requirement to the utilization regime. As amended, the groundwater law requires a permit applicant to show that the withdrawal of water is not likely to degrade or interfere with springs or streams emanating in whole or in part from water originating from the sensitive sole source groundwater basin.