After two weeks of the general legislative session in Oklahoma, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, caught up with Oklahoma Farm Bureau Vice President of Public Policy, Steve Thompson to talk about the latest policy impacting producers in the state of Oklahoma.
As there has been some movement on particular bills in the 2024 state legislative session, and Thompson said he feels that this year’s pace is historically fast.
“Everybody is truly scrambling to make sure there is not something that anyone has missed or that your bases are covered,” Thompson said.
The number one issue right now, Thompson said, has to do with water.
“We have had probably four or five predominant bills kind of geared at western Oklahoma,” Thompson said. “We have lived through multiple years of drought. We were reading today about the drought map and how good it looks relative to where we have been, and one of the reasons we noticed that is because of what we are used to, unfortunately, for the last few years.”
There are a few more water-related issues impacting the rest of the state, but Thompson said the predominant bill concerns western and southwest Oklahoma. Thompson said this bill is aimed at the Upper Red River Basin.
Thompson said this bill would completely rewrite the way Oklahoma water law works.
“It has some dangerous implications as written that would take away some groundwater rights, particularly in the northern end of that basin, and comingle some of that with surface water rights, which we handle totally differently,” Thompson said.
There are many other ideas that are being explored in several bills involving water in Oklahoma concerning issues such as water metering, measurement, and trying to gauge how much water is being used in permitted wells, irrigation, and more.
Thompson said with permitted water, it is currently somewhat of an honor system with no verification of how much water is actually being used. There is also discussion about water wells that are not metered but should be.
When it comes to measuring how much water is being used, Thompson said producers he has had the chance to speak with are open to the idea, but more concerned with how much this technology will cost.
“Make no mistake, these are significant potential policy changes in Oklahoma,” Thompson said.
This will be a long process, Thompson said, but the next two weeks are going to be critical.
There has also been a focus on water application in eastern Oklahoma, Thompson said, as poultry producers are big players in water usage. Thompson said if producers are following the law, there is no reason they should be sued because of things that are happening outside of their farm or ranch.
“There are many sources that impact the water supply in eastern Oklahoma, and a lot of times, it is things outside of our state,” Thompson said.
Hays and Thompson also talked about politics in Oklahoma’s poultry industry, potential income tax cuts, the amount of money available to lawmakers, and other legislation important to rural Oklahoma. Click the LISTEN BAR above the story to hear the full conversation.
