Trust hears detailed permitting plan for Kiamichi River water project; studies and modeling to support ESA consultations

Oklahoma City trustees on Jan. 27 received a technical briefing on permitting and environmental studies for the city’s planned Kiamichi River water project, including field mussel surveys, bathymetry, river modeling and consultations with federal regulators and tribal partners.

Brian Nazarenes, who identified himself as the project’s permitting lead, summarized the project history and regulatory steps. He said the city purchased water-supply storage in Sardis Reservoir in 2010 and that a settlement agreement with the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations (executed in August 2016 and later enacted by Congress) shaped the project’s legal constraints and the permitted intake area. Nazarenes said the OWRB awarded the city a water-right permit in October 2017 and that litigation that followed was ultimately resolved in favor of the permit, allowing the permitting effort to proceed in 2024.

Nazarenes described the federal permitting framework: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Section 404 dredge-and-fill permitting process, NEPA environmental review (with the city expecting a constrained NEPA rather than a full EIS), endangered-species consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act compliance. He said the pipeline route to Atoka Lake is expected to proceed under a nationwide Corps permit for utility lines, while the river intake will require an individual 404 permit because of potential adverse effects on aquatic habitat.

On species, Nazarenes identified three endangered freshwater mussels found in the Kiamichi River — the Ouachita rock pocketbook, scaleshell and winged mapleleaf — and described an eight-site mussel survey program and supporting habitat and bathymetric work. He said the work feeds a river model designed to evaluate the effects of releases and diversions on mussels and to support formal Section 7 consultation. "That'll enable the city to attain, what's called an incidental incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is which is necessary to get the 404 permit from the corps of engineers," Nazarenes said.

Nazarenes also described operational conditions: Sardis releases during drought and a required 50 cubic-feet-per-second bypass at the Moyers Crossing diversion to maintain downstream flows, which he said would provide direct habitat benefits. He noted field measures from a recent drought that recorded flows as low as 1 CFS in parts of the river, underscoring habitat vulnerability.

Nazarenes laid out a milestone schedule: finish field work and conceptual intake design by the end of the current year, complete river-modeling work into the first quarter of the following year, target completion of the constrained NEPA analysis by mid/third quarter 2027, and continue regulatory consultations into 2028 with the expectation of obtaining the necessary federal permits by 2028. A Trust representative added the design start, preliminary work and an estimated construction start roughly two years after design would place the project's obligation to begin taking water under the permit by 2035.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: continuing mussel and habitat studies, completing river modeling, carrying out required consultations with the Corps and Fish and Wildlife Service, and pursuing state water-quality certification. Trustees thanked the presenter; no formal vote or direction altering the project timetable was recorded during this meeting.