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Clean Lakes & Watershed Studies
Bathymetric Mapping Program
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board bathymetric mapping program began in the late 1990s. Its purpose was to develop a tool that could be used to provide accurate determinations of the current storage capacities in the state’s reservoirs. Obtaining accurate storage volumes is an integral tool used in the management of the state’s water supply. For many reservoirs, the only available storage volumes are those that were estimated when the reservoir was first constructed. Because of sediment deposition that occurs in the reservoir, the volume of the reservoir can be reduced over time. By conducting a bathymetric survey, the managing authority of a reservoir can be better equipped to handle critical water management issues.
The process of surveying a reservoir uses a combination of Geographic Positioning System (GPS) and acoustic depth sounding technologies that are incorporated into a hydrographic survey the vessel. The OWRB uses an 18-ft aluminum hull Silverstreak craft with a cabin, powered by a single 115-Horsepower Mercury outboard motor. The equipment used to conduct the survey include: a ruggedized notebook computer, an Syqwest Bathy 1500 Echo Sounder, a Trimble Navigation, Inc. Pro XR GPS receiver with differential global positioning system (DGPS) correction, and a Odom Hydrographics, Inc, DIGIBAR-Pro Profiling Sound Velocimeter. As the survey vessel travels across the lake’s surface on pre-plotted transect lines, the echo sounder gathers approximately eight readings per second from the lake bottom. The depth readings are stored on the survey vessel’s on-board computer along with the positional data generated from the vessel’s GPS receiver. Accurate estimates of area-capacity can be determined for the lake by building a 3-D triangulated irregular network (TIN) model of the reservoir from the collected data.
Bathymetric maps available for download on our Web site include the following:
Arcadia
Atoka
Dave Boyer
Ellsworth
Eucha
Frederick
Hefner
Heyburn
Hugo
Lawtonka
McGee Creek
Murray
Okemah
Overholser
Sardis
Spavinaw
Stanley Draper
Thunderbird
Wister
Lake Restoration/Wetland development
Oklahoma reservoirs are sadly missing aquatic vegetation on their shorelines. What is aquatic vegetation and why is this important? Aquatic vegetation refers to plants that can live in permanently saturated soils. Some may be emergent leaved plants like bulrush, some are floating leaved plants like water lilies. Others are completely submersed plants like water stargrass or valisneria. Aquatic plants act like a buffer to the shoreline. They can act like a natural and more attractive "rip-rap". Their roots systems protect the shallow sediment from resuspension by waves. The above ground plants dissipate the wave energy that erodes away the bank. Aquatic plants also take up nutrients out of the water column reducing algal biomass, add dissolved oxygen, and increasing water clarity. Some plants take up and bind heavy metals and other contaminants in the water column. Another important reason to have vegetated shorelines is they act as wetland habitat for many species of wildlife including birds, fish, and turtles. Young of the year fish as well as their predators use these plants for cover. Lastly, these plants give our shorelines a natural more aesthetic look than the typical bare red dirt and sandstone banks that we see all too often around our state. Getting beneficial native plants in our reservoirs also protects them from possible (perhaps we should say "probable") future infestations of unwanted nuissance or exotic plant species that inevitibly find their way to an open niche. We hope to get desirable plants established in our lakes first.
To get these wetlands started in a lake we plant potted plants with well established root systems in shallow coves. Then we cage the plants to protect them from turtles, carp and other herbivores. These plantings are called "founder colonies". Over time, these plantings will spread by rhizome, fragments and seed to populate the cove sufficiently to overcome the herbivory pressure and thus no longer need the cages or pens to survive and multiply. This will take several years to establish but once in they take hold their spread will be exponential. The positive changes to that littoral (shallow shoreline of the lake) ecosytem will be measurable and significant.
The Lakes and Special Studies section along with other partners, such as GRDA and ODWC, are actively planting Grand, Wister and Stanley Draper Lakes and has done limited plantings in Lake Carl Blackwell and Thunderbird. With other proposals on the drawing board we are constantly searching for funding sources to continue this work across the state. The OWRB and our partners cannot possibly plant every lake in the state. Our hope is that as successes are made and the changes that come with it are realized this work will expand to lake managers state wide.
Lake Diagnostics/Watershed Modeling
Staff employ complex computer programs that
predict hydrologic processes (the flow of water and whatever is
being carried with it) and create watershed models. Such modeling
aids in the diagnosis of impaired watersheds and reservoirs by
providing estimates on the inflow of various substances from the
surrounding watershed. Models are also used to predict the effects
of water and land use/management as well as stormwater runoff
and flood recession rates.
Erosion: High winds and accelerated wave action have a considerable
impact on Oklahoma's reservoirs, especially erosion at the shoreline
and high suspended solids in the water. Staff work closely with
lake managers and other local officials to implement innovative
measures to combat high sediment loading and erosion within watersheds.
Current Studies
- Continuing efforts to improve water quality in Lake Thunderbird,
the OWRB and the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District (COMCD)
have begun their fifth year of monitoring chlorophyll and nutrient
concentrations in the lake. The OWRB has recommended several management
alternatives that have been implemented by the COMCD that have greatly
improved the lake's algae and chlorophyll problems
- With funding from GRDA, the OWRB is introducing aquatic plants to Grand Lake with help from the Lewisville Aquatic Research Facility and ODWC. While the primary goal is to mitigate fish and waterfowl habitat in the watershed, erosion control and improved water quality are additional benefits gained from this project. With the use of plastic coated wire, over 600 cages and pens have been built at 11 sites around the lake to provide long term protection from carp, turtles and other herbivores in the lake. These cages of plants termed "founder colonies" have been planted with 25 native species of aquatic emergent and submergent plants beneficial to fish and waterfowl. These long term founder colonies will stay in place for several years sending out seeds and fragments slowly but surely populating the lake. Once established these plants will protect the shorelines of these and other coves around the lake from wave action and actually trap sediment being washed in from surface runoff. OWRB also instigated the aquatic plant nursery used in this project built and maintained by ODWC. While the plants there were primarily used for the Grand Lake project, it is our hope that this will be a resource of wetlands plants for many projects in the NE part of the state.
- OWRB and Oklahoma City with 104(b)(3) Wetlands Grant from EPA is introducing aquatic plants to Stanley Draper Lake with help from ODWC. While the primary goal is to increase wetland acreage in the watershed, erosion control and improved water quality are additional benefits gained from this project. With the use of plastic coated wire, over 600 cages and pens have been built at 31 sites around the lake to provide long term protection from carp, turtles and other herbivores in the lake. These cages of plants termed "founder colonies" have been planted with 25 native species of aquatic emergent and submergent plants beneficial to fish and waterfowl. These long term founder colonies will stay in place for several years sending out seeds and fragments slowly but surely populating the lake. Once established these plants will protect the shorelines of these and other coves around the lake from wave action and actually trap sediment being washed in from surface runoff.
Survey of the Nation's Lakes
In 2007, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board participated in the National Lakes Survey by sampling thirty-five probabilistic sites. Headquarter 106 monies were leveraged with regional funds for eighteen additional sites allowing a state level survey. The bulk of the entire probabilistic survey included Beneficial Use Monitoring Program lakes (30/53). The Environmental Protection Agency provided many beneficial facets for participating in the survey. One of the key areas was building capacity for improving the monitoring program at the state level. Because the majority of lakes that were sampled by the probabilistic survey were BUMP lakes, the demonstration allowed for long-term BUMP monitoring data to be compared to the data from the survey, an inventory of the lakes within the twelve ecoregions of the state, and biological parameters and data to be added to the assessment of the states waters. Oklahoma is looking to the future with the possibility of using the data for further development of nutrient and biological criteria, re-evaluating the water quality standards for these waters and incorporating new parameters into the established monitoring program.
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