Flood Control Oklahoma

Oklahoma State - Watershed Program Leader

Oklahoma leads the nation with 2, 105 upstream flood control dams created under the USDA Watershed Program. Oklahoma’s conservation districts are key watershed project contributors. All these dams can be found within 121 watersheds within 64 counties and provide $75 million in annual predicted benefits coming from decreased flood damages and also other advantages.

Oklahoma State has always been a leader in flood control starting with the development of the 1st upstream flood control dam in the nation in 1948, Cloud Creek Dam Number ONE. The dam located in the vicinity of Cordell, Oklahoma State, is within the Cloud Creek Watershed, a tributary into the Washita River and was constructed by neighborhood watershed task patrons with help from the USDA Soil Conservation Service. The Flood Control Act of 1944 (Public regulation 78-534) sanctioned financing and technical assistance from the USDA Soil Conservation Service. This regulation sanctioned pilot watershed projects within 11 watersheds within the country, such as Washita River Watershed within Oklahoma State.

Congress noticed the achievements & advantages of these kinds of eleven watershed plans & in 1954 approved the Watershed Protection and Flood deterrence Act of 1954 (Public regulation 83-566) that widened the System to other approved watersheds.


Oklahoma also boasts the 1st finished watershed project inside the USA, Sandstone Creek Watershed job in Roger Mills County. Twenty-four dams were constructed in the watershed between 1950 and 1953.

Oklahoma was additionally the 1st state to construct a multi-purpose dam, Wildhorse Creek Dam No. 22 in Stephens County in 1957.

Oklahoma State Counties using Watershed Dams


How the Program Functions


The concept driving the upstream flood control Program is to construct compact flood control dams on tributaries upstream coming from rivers or substantial streams. The group of dams inside a watershed trap waters through major rainstorms and slowly and gradually release it over a time period of a few days or weeks by way of a pipe within the dam stopping it from reaching the river all at one time, therefore lessening floodwaters.

Preservation procedures such as terraces, ponds, diversions, grass plantings, as well as level stabilization structures are employed to the area within the watershed to stop erosion, lessen sediment and to help prolong the life of the dams.

community watershed project backers request support with a feasibility study on a watershed project from the USDA normal Resources Conservation Service. Should the job is determined possible in addition to job patrons prefer to move forward with the job, NRCS provides assistance in creating a watershed strategy. This strategy may need Congressional approval prior to funding can be allocated to the task. Once the strategy is approved and initial funding is appropriated, building is commenced on dams wherever local patrons have obtained easements and rights-of-way. Congress allocates watershed money to states on an annual basis. Watershed tasks need a area unit of government as the key project sponsor, which in Oklahoma State are usually conservation districts. The job backer assumes functioning and servicing for any dams once they are constructed.

The majority of the 2, 105 dams have been carried out in the 1960s and 70s, with over 100 dams created in some years.

The vast majority of dams are located on individual lands and while the dams are constructed with national funds, the lakes created by the dams do not have to be opened for the public. Permission to enter private property to fish, for example. must be attained through the landowner.

advantages of the Watershed Program

The 2, 105 upstream flood control dams created within the state have established a $2 billion infrastructure that offers numerous benefits to thousands of people. It is projected that the dams as well as established conservation practices inside the watersheds supply roughly $75 million in positive aspects annually.

The lakes not only provide flood in addition to erosion control, but they are sources of water for livestock & irrigation as well as they produce wildlife habitat and leisure spots. The dams supply flood protection to above 2 million acres of agricultural territory in downstream flood plains.

Forty-two of the dams were created as multi-purpose buildings which produce city and county and countryside water supplies or recreation spots for local towns.

These 2, 105 flood control dams:

Safeguards 1, 532 county & highway bridges.
Offers flood deterrence for 20, 541 farms & ranches.
Traps 9. 2 million tons of sediment per year. Much of this sediment would end up in major streams or lakes, such as Lake Texoma, if not caught by the flood control dams.
Has produced or boosted 44, 399 acres of wetlands.
Flood Control Act of 1944, general public regulation 78-534

The Washita River Watershed Flood Control Program was among the initial 11 plans authorized within the country by general public regulation 78-534 and since that point 1, 107 of the 1, 121 organized dams have been created within the sub-watersheds of the Washita River. Many of these dams have or will soon reach the final of the 50-year designed life-span and have filled up with sediment or need rehabilitating due to changes in hazard classification or dam safety regulations. Some dams have already been rehabilitated to bring them up to recent dam safety specifications and increase their life for an additional 100 years.

Watershed Protection and Flood deterrence Act of 1954, general public law 83-566

Under the power of PL 83-566 Watershed Protection and Flood avoidance Act area patrons have requested help on above ONE HUNDRED watersheds. Out of these requests, work plans have been finished and approved for 71 watersheds. Nine hundred & eighty-five dams are completed and an additional 319 dams are awaiting development. The amount of dams built per year depends on area patrons acquiring needed easements and rights-of-way and on NRCS receiving watershed funding for building and technical aid.

Pilot & RC&D Watershed tasks

Six flood control dams in the Oklahoma have been constructed under a pilot flood prevention task (Double Creek Watershed in Washington County) and seven dams had been created under the Resource Conservation and Development Program (RC&D). The 6 dams in the Double Creek Watershed have been rehabilitated somewhere between 2004 & 2008 to get them up to present dam safety specifications and lengthen their lifespan for another 100 years.

High Hazard Dams


Of the 2, 105 flood control dams within the state, 229 of them are categorized as “high hazard” dams (as of September 1, 2008). A dam is categorized high hazard when there can be likely loss of life coming from a dam failure.

Some dams have been developed as high hazard dams whenever they had been created on account of residences, corporations or major highways located downstream in the breach region. But Most of the high hazard dams had been made as low hazard dams in outlying areas to assist control flash flooding on agricultural lands. Households, corporations or highways have been made downstream inside the breach area 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 proper classification.


functioning and repair


functioning and repair of the 2, 105 small flood control dams is a big obligation for several conservation districts. Some districts have above 100 dams in their region. Many of the common jobs areas carry out are: making yearly inspections; guaranteeing the dams and earthen spillways are guarded with great plant life and without any erosion; ensuring that the main spillway inlet tower as well as pipe are kept freed from debris and in excellent condition; preserving fencing surrounding the dam, and ensuring that there are no obstructions within the earthen spillway like trees or man-made materials that interrupt the natural water stream.

The Oklahoma State Conservation Commission (OCC) has various watershed technicians that produce aid and machines to districts to assist with this duty. These technicians produce technical help to conservation zones and often assist zones with fixes to primary spillways and other components of dams. The OCC loans siphons, pumps, and also other equipment to conservation districts and Provides education to section employees on functioning and servicing.

The OCC also Provides capital to areas for repairs to dams (subject for the availability of resources appropriated by legislature). Requests for such capital is made to OCC utilizing form OCC-8H.

The OCC Works with conservation districts to produce a process of expert control of beavers where they are a problem. Beavers often burrow in the earthen dams and plug up the major spillway of dams, which usually if not addressed could cause dam failure.

task Sponsors' (Conservation Districts') Obligations

Watershed job sponsors (in most circumstances conservation districts) enter into a partnership with NRCS on a watershed job. This arrangement spells out tasks of the job patron, like those for operations and upkeep of the dams. This contract calls for the sponsors to carry out yearly inspections, and function and maintain the dams to ensure they stay risk-free as well as function as created.

Even though dams are frequently positioned on private area, conservation districts through an easement authorized prior to development of a dam, have the right to enter in the property to examine, preserve and mend or rehabilitate the dams.


Other fact sheets on the Watershed Plan are also available on the National Watershed Coalition website: http: //www. watershedcoalition. org