Cool Oklahoma Water Website

I ran across a pretty cool water website in the state of Oklahoma... excuse me... in the "United State Of OklaH2Oma" which is worth a visit I think.  It is almost exclusively video driven, but is very well done with high quality pictures and videos.  It was created by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and really pushes all the water buzz word buttons I've ever heard.

Through video statements offered to music and water scenes, many prominent Oklahoma water folks offer up the seven essentials to water in Oklahoma - which incidentally - make up the elements of their current state water plan.  The overriding themes of the site are to meet every Oklahoman's water needs while remaining sustainable and allowing every Oklahoman to participate in the process with a seat at the water policy table. The sub-themes of rural and urban growth, drought protection and expanded agriculture are prominent as well.

If I had any qualms at all it'd be a question of whether all these things are possible over the entire state all at the same time - that is without some new water coming into the system.  There is of course no mention of needing new supplies, or where any new water would come from, but I'm pretty sure their message precludes any Oklahoma water going anywhere else.  All this said without even mentioning Tarrant County, Texas!  I also wonder if a more realistic rendering of the state's water realities might actually do the Oklahoma state water planning process more good than not.

Regardless of what I think (or think I think) it is a really nice site with lots of visuals to WOW the visitor.  Sure makes Oklahoma look spectacular while issuing an almost spiritual set of heartwarming messages.  I hope they can pull it off.

Norman, Oklahoma Water - 1918

I ran across a copy of the July 9, 1918 Daily Transcript - the newspaper for Norman, Oklahoma, and was surprised to find 5 articles therein that mentioned "water".

The first was on the front page and was reporting on the water quality results of a new well Norman had recently completed.  The article reads:  "Analysis of water coming from the new city well shows it to be fully the equal of that of the old well, according to a report made to Mayor S.W. Hutchin, by Dr. Edwin DeBarr, state chemist, who has recently completed an analysis of the water for drinking and domestic purposes," says Dr. DeBarr in his letter to the mayor.  No pathogenic germs nor acid-forming bacteria are present in the water, according to the report. The chemical analysis of the water is as follows:  Odor, none. Albuminoid ammonia, .22 parts per million.  Free ammonia, .4 parts per million. Nitrogen as nitrates, .0005 parts per million.  Chlorine, 17 parts per million.  Magnesium oxide, 4 parts per million.  Calcium oxide, 53 parts per million.  Sulfuric anhydride, 119 parts per million.  Alkalinity, 175 parts per million.  Total solids, 315 parts per million."

As a student (many years ago) at OU I remember that the chemistry classes were always held in DeBarr Hall.  Now at least I know where they got the name for that building.

There is also an article reporting that Chicago's drinking water from Lake Michigan was undergoing "strong chlorination" due to an unusual number of dead fish washing ashore.  It's nice to know that the Health Department tested the fish and found no poison was involved, and found no pollution of the Lake Michigan water either.  You don't suppose the 17 parts per million Chlorine in the Norman City well was a result of Chicago's shock treatments, do you?

Another article covered the daily routine of the quartermaster  in the Office of the County Food Administrator.  It included a visit from "..an elderly spectacled gentleman who looked neither decidedly sweet nor sour..", and from ".. a middle-aged, stout, healthy "farmerette".." who asked "Do you think you can arrange for us to have some water soon for our crops?"  No, she wasn't wanting rain, but an irrigation well.

All in all, an eclectic set of articles for a 1918 newspaper from Norman, don't you think?

Kansas' Largest Earthquake

Just read that central Oklahoma (where I lived before moving to Kansas) had another small earthquake this morning - 3.7 in the Jones, OK area.  In reviewing the technical info on this quake from a USGS site, I traveled over to the Kansas site out of curiosity (Kansas Earthquake Info) and looked at the largest quake (of record) to hit Kansas - a 5.1 quake that struck the Riley County Area (Manhattan, KS) on April 24, 1867.  This quake is noted here because its USGS record has 3 references to water as follows:

This earthquake inflicted several minor injuries, cracked walls, and loosened stones from buildings. At Manhattan, a 0.6-meter wave was observed moving south to north on the Kansas River. Chimneys were downed in Louisville (Pottawatomie County) and Leavenworth. One side of a large building that houses a newspaper office was knocked down at Paola, south of Kansas City, in Miami County. East of Manhattan, the earth opened and ejected much water on a farm about 5 kilometers south of Wamego.  Additional minor damage occurred in Iowa at Dubuque (plaster fell); in Kansas at Junction City (a well being dug was destroyed),..

 

It's comforting to know that there has been little earthquake activity in Kansas since 1990 - I count only 13 or so.  (Map from the same USGS site linked above).  Now tornadoes - quite a different matter!