Future droughts on minds of area water planners

The drought of 2010 through ’15 may be over, but its effects are not. That seemed to be the consensus at a two-hour meeting Tuesday of a group studying how to cope with future droughts and lessen their impact.
Duane Smith, former director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board who’s now a consultant to the Foss Reservoir Master Conservancy District, is chairing the $400,000 study which began last fall. He said it looks like there will need to be two or three more meetings before a draft report will be ready to send to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The bureau, which owns Foss Lake, provided a $200,000 grant to pay for half the study’s cost. The Foss district is paying the rest.