Optima Lake was built to be a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
in
Texas County, Oklahoma
Texas County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its county seat is Guymon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,640. It is the second largest county in Oklahoma, based on land area, and is named for ...
. The site is just north of
Hardesty and east of
Guymon in the
Oklahoma Panhandle
The Oklahoma Panhandle (formerly called No Man's Land, the Public Land Strip, the Neutral Strip, or Cimarron Territory) is a salient in the extreme northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, consisting of Cimarron County, Texas Count ...
.
The earthen Optima Lake Dam (National ID # OK20510) was completed in by the
, with a height of , and a length at its crest of . Although designed to contain a maximum of of water, the lake never reached more than five percent of capacity,
[Wahl, K & R. L. Tortorelli, 1996. "Changes in flow in the Beaver-North Canadian River Basin Upstream from Canton Lake, Western Oklahoma", USG]
WRI 96-4304
/ref> and remains effectively empty. Rapid declines in streamflow related to large-scale pumping from the high plains aquifer system, also known as the Ogallala Aquifer
The Ogallala Aquifer () is a shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand, silt, clay, and gravel located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately in portio ...
, coincided with the completion of the dam, to make the reservoir a dramatic example of unanticipated environmental impacts.
The Corps' website states in part (emphasis in original):
"All public use areas around the lake are land access points only, and do not offer swimming, boating, fishing or camping opportunities. The water level in the lake has never reached normal pool. Visitors should be aware that the lake's level is very low, and is often times dry. Visitors wanting to picnic or view wildlife should come for the quiet natural setting -- with or without water in the lake area."
The lake surroundings offer few to no amenities since lake camping facilities and buildings were dismantled for public safety by the Corps in 2010.
History
The project was originally included as part of the Flood Control Act of 1936
The Flood Control Act of 1936, , (FCA 1936) was an Act of the United States Congress signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on 22 June 1936.[Flood Control Act of 1950
Title II of Public Law 516-81st Congress, which per Section 216 thereof may be cited as The Flood Control Act of 1950, was a law passed by the United States Congress authorizing flood control projects around the country.
The Act was prompted in p ...]
,[Section 216 Initial Appraisal Report, Optima Lake, September 2010, US Army Corps of Engineers] but planning and political wrangling delayed the start of construction until 1966. The intent was for the reservoir to fill primarily from the flow of the Beaver River, also known as the North Canadian River
The North Canadian River is a river, long, in Oklahoma in the United States. It is a tributary of the Canadian River, draining an area of U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset/Watershed Boundary Dataset, area data covering North ...
. Normal flow on the Beaver River, from 1937 to 1966, averaged 32.2 cubic feet per second. The river had occasional floods, including an October 1923 flood amounting to of water, and a September 1941 flood in which the Beaver's flow increased to . The river's most recent flow of significance was in October 1965 at . In the end the project was authorized for flood control, drinking and irrigation water in the relatively dry Oklahoma panhandle, recreation, and fish and wildlife conservation.
The Guymon Chamber of Commerce, which enthusiastically backed the project, published a pamphlet that touted its expected virtues. The brochure forecast that the lake would be deep, and its arms would flood up to up Beaver River and along its tributary, Coldwater Creek.
During the 12 years of construction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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, the flow of the Beaver dropped. It was later recognized that because the source of the Beaver was the underground Ogallala Aquifer, being the water table underlying far western Oklahoma and parts of seven other Western states, and due to increased takings from the aquifer for irrigation and drinking water, the river's flow was being reduced to a trickle.
The $46.1-million project was completed in 1978. The dam was constructed of compacted earth fill embankment with gated outlet works and a long uncontrolled saddle spillway. The top of the dam is at of elevation above sea level. The specifications put the top of the maximum pool at , the top of the flood control pool at , the top of the conservation pool at , and the top of the inactive pool at . The conservation pool was designed to hold of water, with designated to be available as a water supply. The flood pool capacity was designed for , while absolute maximum capacity of the lake was set at . The Corps forecasted in 1979 that, "The optimum visitation for the project is 600,000 annual visitors and will be reached in 2014."
But water flow in the Beaver, 1977–1987, averaged only , far less than the historical average. In the mid-1980s, the Corps recognized that the reduced flow of the Beaver was permanent and that the reservoir was not going to fill: the maximum lake level was achieved May 31, 1980 at an elevation of , whereas the very bottom of the conservation pool was intended to be . Subsequently, the flow in the Beaver dropped even further. In the last five year period (from 1989–1993) that the U.S. Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...
could measure its flow near Guymon, the river averaged less than .
The Corps formally closed the park in 1995, although the site remained open to the public. With funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...
, about 161 decaying structures including picnic enclosures, campsites, restrooms, dump stations, and numerous power poles, were demolished by September 2010 for safety reasons. As of 2014, the project was receiving 2000 to 5000 visitors annually.
A spending controversy erupted in 2009, when the Corps wanted to use $1.2 million of economic stimulus money to replace rotting guardrails on each side of the paved road across the top of the Optima Dam used by approximately 15 cars a day. Public criticism caused the Corps to instead gate and padlock the road at a cost of $1000. The Corps' September 2010 Section 216 ''Initial Appraisal Report on Optima Lake'' indicated the Corps was spending approximately $160,000 per year for annual inspections of dam structures, detailed inspections at five year intervals, and repairs as budgets allowed. That same report indicated that existing dam structures (gate tower, stilling basin, uncontrolled spillway and outlet works) remained in operational condition.
In the 1973 Environmental Impact Statement done by the Corps during the planning process, a "dry lake" option for the project was considered which would have provided for no water retention during normal periods, but would have created an area available as a flood containment pool in the event of abnormally large water events in the area. That concept for Optima was rejected in favor of an active water-containment reservoir; however, the project as it currently exists is consistent with the dry lake option.[As stated in the 2012 report, “Optima Lake regulates flow in the Beaver River at Beaver but does not sustain a water supply yield.” ] The Beaver does occasionally still carry off surface flooding after heavy rains, as in April 2016 when the river was flowing near Guymon for the first time in decades following two days of intense rains that caused Texas County to be declared a disaster area.
The overall project included the Optima National Wildlife Refuge
Located in the middle of the Oklahoma panhandle, the Optima National Wildlife Refuge is made up of grasslands and wooded bottomland on the Coldwater Creek arm of the Optima Lake project.
The 8,062-acre Optima Wildlife Management Area, an Okla ...
, run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
, being initially along Coldwater Creek—which has its confluence with the Beaver upstream from the dam— and the Optima Wildlife Management Area, public hunting lands managed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is an agency of the state of Oklahoma responsible for managing and protecting Oklahoma's wildlife population and their habitats. The Department is under the control of the Wildlife Conservation Co ...
, initially along the Beaver. However, the decreased size of the lake itself has led to Optima National Wildlife Refuge
Located in the middle of the Oklahoma panhandle, the Optima National Wildlife Refuge is made up of grasslands and wooded bottomland on the Coldwater Creek arm of the Optima Lake project.
The 8,062-acre Optima Wildlife Management Area, an Okla ...
being increased to , and the area managed by Oklahoma, including licensed Corps lands above and below the dam, increasing to .
References
* R. Lowitt, 2002. "Optima Dam: A Failed Effort to Irrigate the Oklahoma Panhandle", ''Agricultural History'', 76(2):260-72
External links
2006 Geological Society of America press release
– Lessons to be learned from sites like Optima
*USGS onlin
discharge data
for inflow to reservoir (1937–1993)
Optima Lake information on TravelOK.com
Official travel and tourism website for the State of Oklahoma
* National Public Radio, 2013
"If You Want to Build a New Lake in Oklahoma, Forget History"
NPR State Impact Oklahoma
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Reservoirs in Oklahoma
Protected areas of Texas County, Oklahoma
Bodies of water of Texas County, Oklahoma
1978 establishments in Oklahoma