If Kaw Lake Runs Short, Who Gets the Water First?

Enid’s connection to Kaw Lake gave the city something important: another major source of water, added to a system that already includes western groundwater wells.

That gives Enid more flexibility, more infrastructure and more options than it had before.

It also raises a fair public question: If Kaw Lake ever cannot supply everyone who wants water from it, who comes first?

The answer is not as simple as “Enid” or “Stillwater.” It begins with Oklahoma water-right law, expands into federal reservoir storage, and ends with a larger picture of how several Kaw users fit together.

The public record shows Stillwater’s current Kaw state-water permit was filed in 1972. Enid’s current Kaw permit was filed in 2014.^[2][3]

For regular stream-water permits, Oklahoma’s administrative rules say filing-date priority gives the better right when less water is actually available. So on the current public state-right record, Stillwater’s regular permit is senior to Enid’s current regular permit.^[3]

That finding does not diminish what the Kaw project added to Enid’s water system. The project expanded Enid’s physical water-supply options, while Oklahoma’s existing water-right system continues to govern how competing legal rights are organized.

Why the Kaw project still matters

For decades, Enid relied heavily on groundwater from well fields west of the city. The Kaw project added something different: a surface-water source, a new intake, a long transmission system and a modern treatment path tied to Kaw Lake.

Water-system resilience is not just about owning the oldest right. It is also about having more than one source, more than one way to move water, and more options when conditions change.

Enid’s Kaw connection does exactly that: it adds a major surface-water source alongside the city’s groundwater system.

Two different ledgers

Kaw Lake is a federal reservoir operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Oklahoma stream-water rights are administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.^[9]

Those systems are related, but they are not the same thing.

Enid’s current state permit authorizes 20,000 acre-feet per year of stream water. Its federal storage agreement gives the Enid Municipal Authority 20,000 acre-feet of usable conservation storage in Kaw Lake.

Enid’s storage agreement says the Corps is providing storage space for raw water and makes no representation about the quality or availability of the water. It also places responsibility on Enid to acquire, establish and defend the state water rights needed to use that storage.

It isn’t actually a two-city question

The original public question focused on Enid and Stillwater. The records show a larger Kaw system.

EPR’s current OWRB Kaw-reservoir dataset contains 10 current records associated with Kaw Lake. This table is ordered by filing date. It is a chronology, not a final drought cutoff order.

Enid is highlighted for local readers. Permit class matters; the mixed-class chronology should not be read as a literal one-through-ten shutoff queue. Explore these records in Water Explorer →

Stillwater’s current permit is senior to Enid’s current permit, but Stillwater is not the oldest current Kaw-coded permit holder. Newkirk appears earlier in the chronology. OG&E, KRA, Tonkawa, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Ponca City and Perkins also have current Kaw-coded records filed before Enid’s current permit.

The 2024 Kaw Nation record also shows why filing order is only part of the picture: it is a term permit, not a regular permit. Oklahoma’s administrative rules distinguish permit classes when water is limited.

Enid once had an older Kaw right

Enid’s 2009 Water System Master Plan says the City previously held Stream Water Permit No. 1981-180 for 25,000 acre-feet per year.^[4]

According to the plan, Enid authorized OWRB to assign and transfer that right to the Kaw Reservoir Authority in 2001. The transfer triggered a review of historical use, and the permit was officially transferred to KRA on Aug. 27, 2002, at a reduced 14,159 acre-feet per year.

The master plan later described 1981-180 as “the old Enid” permit. That history explains why an older Enid-related Kaw right appears in historical records. It does not establish that Enid still owns that 1981 priority today.

KRA: an important piece still being verified

The public record around Permit 19810180 does not line up neatly. Enid’s 2009 plan says the permit was transferred to KRA. A 2024 Bartlesville Kaw study also lists the permit under KRA at 14,159 acre-feet. But the 2025 Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan physical-supply report indexes Permit 19810180 as City of Enid.^[4][7][8]

Ponca City’s April 28, 2008 minutes add another layer: the city attorney told commissioners that a KRA settlement resolved litigation, removed all cities except Stillwater and Ponca City as beneficiaries, and left KRA continuing with those two cities as its only beneficiaries.^[6]

Those records establish that the KRA structure changed. They do not, by themselves, answer every present-day question about the legal ownership, effect or priority of Permit 19810180.

The Kaw list is not the whole basin

Broader OWRB stream-system data contains additional rights that are not the same thing as the 10 current Kaw-reservoir-coded records. One example is Ponca City Permit 19340060, a vested public-supply right filed in 1934.

That does not mean every broader-basin permit would compete identically for Kaw storage. It means the legal universe is larger than one reservoir-code filter. Water Explorer therefore keeps a “Kaw Reservoir” view separate from a “Broader Stream System” view.

What federal storage adds

Enid’s federal storage agreement is a major part of the city’s Kaw project. It gives the Enid Municipal Authority the right to use an estimated 20,000 acre-feet of Kaw’s usable conservation storage after sediment adjustment — about 9.852 percent of the usable conservation storage described in the agreement.^[5]

Exhibit B listed the then-current water-supply storage accounting as 39,350 acre-feet for OG&E, 51,450 for Stillwater Utilities, 183 for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, 20,000 for Enid and 60,217 not under agreement.^[5]

That agreement gives Enid a substantial physical place in the federal reservoir system. It also makes clear that storage and state-law priority remain separate.

What happens in a real drought?

This is where a simple answer can become misleading.

Oklahoma’s state-law priority system matters. Permit class matters. Filing dates matter. Federal storage accounts and Corps project operations matter too.

EPR has not found one controlling public document that converts all of those pieces — state priority, permit class, beneficial use, permit-specific conditions, federal storage accounts, KRA history and project operations — into one simple Kaw drought shutoff list.

So EPR is not publishing one.

That is not a dead end. It is a clearer picture of how the system actually works: several legal and operational layers overlap.

What the records say about Enid

There is a positive takeaway that should not get lost in the legal detail.

Enid now has more water-system flexibility than it had before the Kaw project. The city did not abandon groundwater. It added a major surface-water source, built infrastructure to move Kaw water roughly 70 miles, secured a 20,000-acre-foot federal storage agreement and obtained a current 20,000-acre-foot-per-year state permit.

Those are meaningful additions to Enid’s long-term water resilience.

What the records establish

Sources

1. 1. Oklahoma Legislature — Title 82, §105.2Oklahoma’s general stream-water priority rule.
2. 2. Oklahoma Water Resources Board — Water PermittingState permitting context and public water-right resources.
3. 3. Oklahoma Administrative Code — OAC 785:20-7-1Permit classes and priority among classes.
4. 4. City of Enid — 2009 Water System Master PlanHistory of Permit 1981-180 and its transfer to KRA.
5. 5. Enid Municipal Authority — Kaw Lake Water Storage AgreementEnid’s 20,000-AF federal storage allocation and state-right responsibility.
6. 6. Ponca City — April 28, 2008 minutesKRA settlement and reorganization actions.
7. 7. 2025 Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan — Physical Water Supply Availability ReportBroader stream-system context and a conflicting index entry for Permit 19810180.
8. 8. Bartlesville / S2 Engineering — Kaw Lake Water Supply StudySecondary engineering summary of Kaw permits and reported use.
9. 9. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — Kaw Lake Water Control ManualFederal project operations and storage-accounting framework.

Editor’s note: This story explains public records and the legal framework EPR found. It is not legal advice and is not a binding determination of how OWRB or the Corps would administer a future shortage. Where the public record conflicts or remains incomplete, EPR says so. The same standard applies to positive findings: where the record shows that Enid has added meaningful water-system capacity, flexibility and resilience, EPR says that too.