Advocates call for long-term state water study
Capitol Report for dailies for week of April 23, 2006	
By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau
Rep. Jerry Ellis retains a clear picture of big cracks in the parched ground of southeastern Oklahoma when he was a kid.
"I can remember my dad lying on the ground and reaching up to his arm pit and still couldn't reach the bottom," said Ellis, D-Valliant.
Oklahoma Municipal League Director Danny George suggested that in far southwestern Oklahoma's Harmon County now there are "two-year-old frogs that don't know how to swim."
Warning that history shows rainfall famine following feast, lawmakers and officials gathered on "Water Day" at the capitol to push for a $6.5 million study of the long-term water outlook.
"We're looking at what could be an extended drought," said Duane Smith, Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) director.
"We need desperately some vision now," said Rep. Don Armes, R-Faxon, chairman of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. "We need people who can see beyond the end of their nose and into the future."
Oklahoma needs to end "crisis management" of its water supply, Smith said, calling for an assessment of water needs over the next century.
But Rep. Debbie Blackburn, D-Oklahoma City, in remarks recalling the bitter fights over sale of southeastern Oklahoma water to Texas and central Oklahoma, said the OWRB had been part of the problem.
Any water plans should be openly discussed, Blackburn insisted, accusing the OWRB staff of being involved in secret negotiations on the sale of water to Texas during the administration of former Republican Gov. Frank Keating. 
Members of her own party helped water down her bill, placing a moratorium on selling water outside the state at that time, she said.
"There was a lot of money to be made," she said.
Blackburn also said the OWRB had approved too water sale permits to private owners even though negative effects were known.
Smith said the agency had no authority to deny the permits if landowners met requirements.  In Oklahoma, the owner of the land is considered owner of the water beneath it.
"Ground water is a private property right," he said.
He also said the OWRB's role in the Texas negotiations was only to provide technical information.
OWRB Chairman Rudy Hermann said only eight of 400 permits had been challenged in court and none were overturned.
Armes cautioned against changing the law without careful study because "the people of Oklahoma are not ready to completely relinquish private property rights."
Miles Tolbert, Gov. Brad Henry's environmental secretary, said the proposed Texas water sale was limited to the Keating administration.
"That's not something the governor wants to pursue," he said. "The idea of selling out of state is dead."
Blackburn said a new study should not be "just an inventory," but should look at water flow over a period of decades.
"We need a complete scientific water study done, not go out and count crawdads and come back and say we've got enough  water to sell to Texas," Ellis said.
Smith said the agency wants a third of the $6.5 million this session. It also is asking for $25 million to make up for lost federal funding for municipal water supplies, and $48 million to help cities and towns save $450 million in protecting public water supplies.
George said 73 percent of municipal water systems are out of compliance with new
EPA regulations.
"In a year of surplus, we ought to be able to squeeze out a little," he said.
***
The people on the Capitol steps hoisted signs above their heads and chanted, "We do recover," "We have a right to get well," "Treat addiction," "More Treatment" and "$56 million in 2006."
"If they get all they are asking for that is only a fraction of what is needed," Oklahoma Mental Health Commissioner Terry Cline said as he watched the demonstration.
He said his department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse actually has requested just $34 million from the Legislature this year.
The rally was organized by the Oklahoma Citizens Advocate for Recovery and Treatment Association (OCARTA), Oklahoma Mental Health Consumer Council and the National Alliance on Mental Illness to urge expanded treatment.
"It's absolutely critical," said former Sen. Ben Brown, deputy director for substance abuse. "As of day before yesterday, the waiting list for treatment was 777, yesterday it was 784. These are people that if they don't get treatment bad things could happen to them."
These bad things include homicide, suicide, accidents and incarceration. And 92 percent of women won't get treatment, he said.
"We make our best case," Brown said. "These are issues that they taxpayers are going to pay for, either up front, or later."
 If later, he said, the cost is much more.
"When they (the mentally ill) know the difference is between life and death they can't wait five years to get help," Cline said.