Oklahoma Flood Control Watershed Program

Oklahoma State leads the way in Watershed Programs

Oklahoma leads the country with 2,105 upstream flood control dams (2010) made under the Watershed Program. Oklahoma’s conservation districts are major watershed project sponsors. These dams are located within 121 watersheds within 64 counties and supply $75 million in annual estimated benefits by minimized flood problems as well as other rewards.

Congress noticed the success along with benefits of these 11 watershed plans and in 1954 sanctioned the Watershed Protection and Flood deterrence Act of 1954  that broadened the System to various other authorized watersheds.

Oklahoma State has constantly been a leader in flood control starting with the building of the first upstream flood control dam within the country in 1948. The dam based near Cordell, Oklahoma State, is within the Cloud Creek Watershed, a tributary to the Washita River and also was made by neighborhood watershed project patrons with aid from the USDA Soil Conservation Service. The Flood Control Act of 1944 sanctioned initial funding and expert aid through the USDA Soil Conservation Service. This particular regulation authorized pilot watershed plans in 11 watersheds in the USA.

Oklahoma also boasts the first completed watershed project in the USA. Twenty-four dams were created within the watershed between 1950 and 1953.  Oklahoma was also the first state goverment to develop a multi-purpose dam in 1957.

Oklahoma State Counties with Watershed Dams

Watershed Protection & Flood prevention Act of 1954

Under the authority of Watershed Protection & Flood deterrence Act community patrons have requested help on more than 100 watersheds. By these requests, work projects have been finished and approved for 71 watersheds. Nine hundred & eighty-five dams are already built and an additional 319 dams are awaiting construction. The quantity of dams constructed annually depends on area contributors obtaining needed easements & rights-of-way and on NRCS getting watershed resources for development and technical help.

How the Program Performs

The concept driving the upstream flood control Plan is to develop small flood control dams on tributaries upstream coming from rivers or significant streams. The number of dams in a watershed trap waters through major rainstorms & slowly discharge it over the period of several days or weeks via a pipe in the dam keeping it from reaching the river all at one time, consequently decreasing floods.

Preservation methods such as terraces, ponds, diversions, lawn plantings, & grade stabilization buildings are utilized for the area in the watershed to counteract erosion, lessen sediment also to help increase the life of the dams.

Local watershed project sponsors ask for aid with a feasibility analysis for a watershed project from the USDA normal Resources Conservation Service. When the job is established possible plus task backers would like to continue with the job, NRCS offers help in developing a watershed program. This strategy might need Congressional authorization prior to capital might be allocated into the job. After the strategy is declared and capital is appropriated, construction is started on dams wherever neighborhood patrons have obtained easements and rights-of-way. Congress allocates watershed resources to states on an yearly schedule. Watershed tasks need a area unit of government as the key project patron, which in Oklahoma State are often conservation districts. The job backer assumes functioning and repair for the dams once they are built.

A lot of the 2,105 dams had been created inside the 1960s and 70s, with over 100 dams built in some years.

The vast majority of dams are located on individual lands and while the dams are made with national resources, the lakes formed from the dams do not have to be opened up into the public. Authorization to enter individual property to fish, and so on. has to be attained from the landowner.

Positive Aspects of the Watershed Plan

The 2, 105 upstream flood control dams constructed inside the state have set up a $2 billion infrastructure that provides numerous benefits to 1000's of individuals. It's projected that the dams and also the established conservation procedures in the watersheds produce around $75 million in advantages yearly.

The lakes not only produce flood as well as erosion control, but they are places of water for animals & irrigation as well as they produce wildlife habitat and leisure locations. The dams provide flood protection to over two million acres of farming terrain in downstream flood flatlands.

Several dams have or will soon reach the end of the 50-year intended life and have filled up with sediment or need rehabilitating on account of changes in hazard classification or dam safety guidelines. Some dams have already been rehabilitated to bring them up to present-day dam safety requirements and extend their life expectancy for another 100 years.

Pilot & RC&D Watershed plans

6 flood control dams within the Oklahoma were constructed under a pilot flood prevention project and 7 dams had been completed under the Resource Conservation and Development Plan (RC&D). The 6 dams within the Double Creek Watershed have been rehabilitated somewhere between 2004 and 2008 to bring them up to present dam safety standards and prolong their life expectancy for an additional Century.

High Hazard Dams

Of the 2,105 flood control dams inside the state, 229 of them are categorized as “high hazard” dams (2008). A dam is categorized high hazard whenever there would be likely loss of life coming from a dam malfunction.

Some dams had been created as high hazard dams whenever they were built on account of houses, companies or key highways located downstream within the breach location. But The majority of the high hazard dams were created as low hazard dams in rural locations to aid control floods on agricultural lands. Homes, companies or highways have been constructed downstream inside the breach location of some of these dams leading to them to be reclassified from low hazard to high hazard. The NRCS continually reviews the status of dams to guarantee the right classification.

Operation & Upkeep


Operations and upkeep of the 2,105 small flood control dams is a significant obligation for many conservation areas. Some districts have more than 100 dams in their section. Most of the typical jobs areas accomplish are: creating yearly inspections; guaranteeing the dams and earthen spillways are safeguarded with excellent plant life and free of erosion; ensuring that the main spillway inlet tower and pipe are kept free of clutter and in excellent condition; preserving fencing surrounding the dam, and ensuring that there are absolutely no interferences within the earthen spillway like trees and shrubs or man-made objects that disrupt the normal water flow.

The Oklahoma State Conservation Commission (OCC) has numerous watershed technicians that provide aid and tools to areas to assist with this responsibility. These technicians provide technical support to conservation zones and often assist zones with maintenance to principal spillways and other pieces of dams. The OCC loans siphons, pumps, and other products to conservation areas and Offers education to area employees on operation & maintenance.

The Oklahoma State Conservation Commission also Supplies money to areas for repairs to dams (subject for the availability of money appropriated from the legislature).

Project Sponsors' Responsibilities

Watershed task contributors (conservation districts) sign a partnership with NRCS on a watershed job. This agreement spells out tasks of the project patron, like those for functioning and servicing of the dams. This agreement needs the contributors to handle yearly inspections, and operate and maintain the dams to guarantee they stay safe in addition to perform as created.

Although the dams are frequently found on non-public terrain, conservation districts through an easement signed prior to building of a dam, have the right to enter in the property to check, manage and repair or rehabilitate the dams.

For more information please visit http: //www. watershedcoalition. org

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