Water Resource

Water from the Antlers aquifer has many uses throughout southeastern Oklahoma. The water is pumped out of the aquifer by means of a pumping well or by artesian forces in some areas. Water from the Antlers is distributed between four main groups: public, irrigation, industrial, and rural. A study examined by Hart and Davis in 1981 attempted to estimate the amount of water used by each group annually. Public water use includes municipal water that is pumped through a city water system. The estimated public water use of the Antlers aquifer was 3,100 acre feet and was the largest withdrawal use. Irrigation was the second largest group for water withdrawal at 2,340 acre-ft. Industrial water pumping was the smallest contributor at only 190 acre-ft. Southeastern Oklahoma is fairly rural and its economy is focused mostly on farming and ranching rather than industry. This is why the total irrigation withdrawal is much higher than the industrial water withdrawal. The fourth group to withdraw water from the Antlers is rural water. This includes rural water districts (see Figure 5) and pumping wells on private property. The estimated rural water withdrawal was 1,370 acre-ft. Overall, the total annual water withdrawal from the Antlers aquifer in southeastern Oklahoma was estimated at 7,000 acre-ft (Hart and Davis, 1981).

While water pumped from the Antlers aquifer is not evenly distributed for use, it is also distributed differently geographically. In the southeastern Oklahoma, Love County has the highest number of irrigation wells. The average amount of water used per person in Oklahoma is estimated to be 130 gallons per day for the Antlers (Morton, 1992). This value is much higher than the national average water use per person, which is about 80-100 gal/d (USGS).