City of Enid, Osage Nation come to the table for $1 million Kaw Lake deal

May 14—With Tuesday's city approval of an agreement that includes paying the Osage Nation $1 million, Enid's long-planned Kaw Lake pipeline project can begin construction.

The Osage Nation will not attempt to delay or stop in higher court or tribal/federal government the city's Kaw Lake Water Supply project, City Attorney Carol Lahman told city commissioners Tuesday before they unanimously voted as Enid Municipal Authority in favor of the forbearance agreement.

A lengthy and costly legal battle over water rights would delay building the 70-mile pipeline that would start at the Arkansas River dam reservoir partially located in Osage County, Lahman and the Nation both say.

In return for sovereign immunity, the city is providing the Osage Nation a one-time payment of $1 million, as well as guaranteed right to use about a third of the pipeline's total capacity, according to the Nation. The city also will provide an annual operations report to the Nation each March after construction is complete.

City officials have 30 days from Tuesday's approval to provide the payment, which the Nation said could be used to fund building two possible water service access points.

If the Osage Nation requests usage, the two parties would meet within 60 days and confer over an amendment to the city's current service area, including the name of the recipient, the location and duration of use and the quantity of water.

In a news release, the Nation called the deal for future water delivery a "tremendous benefit" to its citizens. It also said the project is consistent with the Nation's goals to protect and conserve water, as well as other natural resources surrounding the county for the benefit of the Osage people.

On April 27, 12-member Osage Nation Congress unanimously agreed to a resolution waiving sovereign immunity, going into effect when the city of Enid approved the agreement. Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear signed the resolution the next day.

Osage Nation Attorney General Clint Patterson led negotiations with the city, which began four years ago about potential issues from the proposed project, according to the city.

"Our water team did a tremendous job in reaching this agreement," Patterson said in a statement Friday. "And we appreciate the city of Enid coming to the table and negotiating on a government-to-government basis."

The water program will include an intake pump station at Kaw Lake, eight pipeline segments, an intermediate pump station near Garber and a water treatment plant and water main, both in Enid.

The pipeline is projected to provide 10.5 million gallons of domestic, commercial, industrial and municipal water a day to Enid residents.

Lahman said the water-sharing deal with the Nation would not interfere with the city's previous state water board supply agreement for 20,000 acre-feet a year of water.

The city's forbearance agreement sidesteps a larger dispute between the state of Oklahoma and the Nation about which party owns the water in Osage County and elsewhere in the state, the Arkansas River and its accompanying riverbeds and banks.

The agreement leaves the state's and Nation's positions unchanged and leaves that issue unresolved, Lahman said.

"And yes, $1 million is expensive, but we've been negotiating for four years, and it would be far more expensive to try to either undo the Kaw project ... or to have to attempt to win the bigger dispute, which has been going on for years and will probably continue to go on for years," she told commissioners Tuesday.

If the state dispute is ever resolved in the Nation's favor, it would not then attempt to deny the city's project operations, Lahman said. Instead, the city would apply for a grant of right-of-way for the riverbed crossings, which the Nation would have to approve for an initial 50-year term.

Other pre-construction hurdles still remain, however. Most of the Kaw Lake project's submitted section permits are under review by the state Department of Environmental Quality, and Lahman said land parcels for the pipeline and other sections are still in the condemning process.

Construction is set to begin later this year and be completed by 2023.

Ewald is copy editor and city/education reporter for the Enid News & Eagle.

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