During the severe drought of 2010-2015, several communities in southeast Oklahoma almost ran out of water. Some of these communities rely on streams and rivers as their sole source of water and when these sources almost ran dry, it left them searching for alternatives and wondering how to continue growing, economically, with this water uncertainty. The possibility of climate change has these communities further concerned, primarily because they do not know what to expect. Previously, the USGS, both Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations collaborated on a project to apply a range of possible climate change scenarios to the Red River watershed to determine future water availability. This study will focus specifically on southeast Oklahoma, refining existing numerical models and identifying specific communities and water bodies most at risk. The previous project provided watershed-wide estimates of future impacts to water resources, but not at the level of detail needed to make decisions at the local scale. This study will build on the results of the previous study, developing water demand supply projections for the most water vulnerable communities, helping them with long range planning. In addition, this study will look at the likelihood and environmental implications of rivers in southeast Oklahoma drying out – specifically impacts on fish populations – and the ability of these species to return to the rivers once normal flow conditions are restored.
