Speaking of droughts... Fair use, etc http://www.express-news.net/auth/ennews/ap/texas/d0611.html "Tarrant seeking new water source; new water may come from Oklahoma Eds: NEW for PMs. FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Imported water may seep into the tap water supply in parts of North Texas. As part of an ongoing search for water supplies, the Tarrant Regional Water District is seeking to buy a portion of Waurika Lake, northeast of Wichita Falls, from Lawton, Okla. The request to Lawton is separate from a larger effort by the Tarrant and four other North Texas water districts to tap into abundant water in southeastern Oklahoma. Lawton owns rights to part of the lake but isn't using any water from it. Even so, City Council members say they aren't sure they want to sell a portion of that to the Tarrant water district. But the Lawton council agreed last week to listen to Tarrant's proposals. ``We do have some concerns,'' Lawton City Manager Bill Baker said in Monday's editions of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. ``We have got to protect our water supply.'' If an agreement can be reached with Lawton, pipe could be laid to bring water into the Tarrant water system, said James Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District. The distance could be from 46 to 67 miles, depending on whether the water would flow to a stream leading to the Trinity River or to Lake Bridgeport. The district might be interested in using an average of 20 million gallons of water per day over about 20 years, Oliver said. In Oklahoma, six cities, including Lawton, are eligible to draw from the Corps of Engineers lake. But Lawton draws only from two city reservoirs - Lawtonka and Ellsworth lakes. Lawton, which has about 100,000 people, pays for rights for an average of 6 million gallons of water per day from Waurika Lake. It can increase that amount to an average of 20 million gallons per day, which is about half the lake's production capacity.

-- tex (tex@tex.com), January 15, 2001