Lake Hefner at record low water levels, when will city buy Canton water?

[Snowman]

It has pretty much hovered near 21% of normal capacity since the end of summer

[Anonymous.]

NewsOK has a story on this today. Comments is like rereading every page of this thread.

[venture]

Yeah...its going to be tough for them if they don't get a wet spring. Of course it'll be tough for OKC as well since there wouldn't be a source to pull from. Someone had posted on the story that Canton Lake was built for that area and Enid for water and OKC didn't get rights to it until the 90s. Does OKC have full control of it now or are the other areas up there still using it?

Definitely feel for the businesses that rely on the boating traffic and such on the lake, however that wasn't why it was built.

[Midtowner]

Enid and the surrounding communities showed an amazing lack of foresight by only using ground water.

[Snowman]

Enid and the surrounding communities showed an amazing lack of foresight by only using ground water.

Weren't they planing to use Canton, it probably took decades to go from an idea to finishing construction, but by the time it was finally built by the Army Corps of Engineers was no longer something they could afford to pick up the tab for

[mkjeeves]

Looking back at the gauge history, Hefner's level has been dropping pretty steadily for awhile. I hadn't been out there for a couple of months until last Monday and was surprised then to see where the shoreline wasn't. The river and stinchcomb have looked fairly high during the recent cold weather. I haven't noticed a lot of change in Overholser either but I see it more often since I live nearby so I might not have noticed changes as much.

[venture]

Weren't they planing to use Canton, it probably took decades to go from an idea to finishing construction, but by the time it was finally built by the Army Corps of Engineers was no longer something they could afford to pick up the tab for

From the Army Corps site...

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT - Congress authorized the Canton Lake project in 1938 for flood control. The Flood Control Acts of 1946 and 1948 authorized irrigation and municipal water supply storage for the city of Enid, Okla. Because Enid did not access its storage rights, in 1955 Oklahoma City began a series of 5-year contracts with the federal government to utilize Canton’s water storage. Both the irrigation storage and the water storage were reassigned to Oklahoma City through Section 102 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1990. This project was started in 1940 but World War II temporarily halted construction. After the war, the Corps of Engineers resumed work, and the project was completed in late 1948 and formally dedicated in May of 1949. The cost to build the Canton Project was $11 million.

[mkjeeves]

I understand there were some issues with the gate being damaged from flotsam some months ago. Wonder if that got fixed? It looks today like there might be some debris under the gate keeping it from shutting completely. Hefner and Overholser are both down and water is going downstream. Isn't this about like ten thousand leaky faucets?

[law]

Gee whiz, quit worrying about water. There's plenty more where that came from. You would think OKC didn't have any backup source! Dripping with sarcasm.

[Midtowner]

Gee whiz, quit worrying about water. There's plenty more where that came from. You would think OKC didn't have any backup source! Dripping with sarcasm.

We're in the process of developing backup sources in SE Oklahoma. Canton, however, will probably always be tapped first in that of our sources, it's the only one not requiring a pipeline.

[law]

Assuming Canton has water.

[Snowman]

We're in the process of developing backup sources in SE Oklahoma. Canton, however, will probably always be tapped first in that of our sources, it's the only one not requiring a pipeline.

Once they have the second pipeline it would not be that surprising it they use the spare capacity from that first or a mix of the two, especially like now when Canton is far lower than the other lakes will likely ever be. It is hard to say which will be cheaper; Canton does not have the costs of a pipeline, but they still have to pay for the release, lose a lot of the volume in the transfer and it will cost more to treat water from it.

[Urban Pioneer]

So how is Canton Lake fairing now? Looking at radar, another wave of rain seems headed towards it's watershed.

[Urbanized]

It's really weird. I watch it almost daily because I have developed an odd fascination with it. Even when it gets heavy rain the "conservation pool" remains around 22% full and rarely moves. I have even seen the level go DOWN after a good rain and in days after, when you would expect inflow from the catchment basin. It's strange.

[Snowman]

It's really weird. I watch it almost daily because I have developed an odd fascination with it. Even when it gets heavy rain the "conservation pool" remains around 22% full and rarely moves. I have even seen the level go DOWN after a good rain and in days after, when you would expect inflow from the catchment basin. It's strange.

They still do some very small release, which are generally the reason they go down around the time it has rained, of course evaporation is another factor. My best guesses are something to do with maintenance of the equipment, some sort of attempt to keep algae or something else from growing or could be related to some rules about how long water can be impounded. I remember there was some stories about how stupid the impounding laws were, where they were having to release large amounts from an lake that was the water supply for cities in a drought area downstream because of how long X amount had been stored there, to an area that was already flooding, rivers were already flowing over levies and more rain was forecast to hit the flooded area for a few more weeks.

[Dennis Heaton]

So how is Canton Lake fairing now? Looking at radar, another wave of rain seems headed towards it's watershed.

Canton Lake

[OKCRT]

How is lake Hefner doing? I am thinking that Canton may never be full again.

[Dennis Heaton]

How is lake Hefner doing? I am thinking that Canton may never be full again.

USGS Current Conditions for USGS 07159550 Lake Hefner at Oklahoma City, OK

[Snowman]

How is lake Hefner doing? I am thinking that Canton may never be full again.

That depends on where the rain falls, the rainfall maps till this last month have been a tragic comedy for the last three years. Not only has there been a drought but also when there has been any significant rain it will practically avoid Canton's catchment area but hit north, south and/or east of it.

[Urbanized]

Optimal elevation for Hefner is 1199, so at 1195+ it is less than 4 feet below that level. Not bad.

[mkjeeves]

The monthly historical data for Canton shows no releases in 2014. Evap for May alone was 9.58 inches.

Monthly Charts for Canton Lake

[Snowman]

The monthly historical data for Canton shows no releases in 2014. Evap for May alone was 9.58 inches.

Monthly Charts for Canton Lake

There have been spikes on the releases chart that shows hourly info, unless they are some sort of glitch from when it rains but they generally track with the hourly data on lake level.
CANT Releases
Canton Lake

[OKCRT]

I don't see how Canton lake can get back to normal levels. That would take weeks of constant rain sitting right over the lake. Or in other words,it would take a miracle.

[mkjeeves]

There have been spikes on the releases chart that shows hourly info, unless they are some sort of glitch from when it rains but they generally track with the hourly data on lake level.
CANT Releases
Canton Lake

I've seen that. The page has a disclaimer for unverified data. "Releases
These data are gathered electronically and, as presented, have not undergone any form of quality control. These data are not guaranteed to be valid or correct." There is probably some truth between the two, like small releases for maintenance of the gates of short enough duration that don't amount to significant enough flow to make the report. Or the data gathering equipment gets worked on, or disturbed when nothing is really happening.

[Snowman]

I don't see how Canton lake can get back to normal levels. That would take weeks of constant rain sitting right over the lake. Or in other words,it would take a miracle.

If you mean recover this year, yea it would probably take a hurricane remnant coming in and stopping over the NW Oklahoma. More practically what it needs is normal or above average rainfall west/northwest of the lake for a sustained period of time, what actually falls 'in' the lake is only a tiny fraction of it's supply. It has three terrible years to make up for and I do not remember the year or two before that being banner years either, it will take time but should eventually recover. It may take a few to several years though.