Meeting attendees:   State, Federal, Academic, and private Oklahoma water stakeholders

Jerry Brabander attended the meeting of the Oklahoma Water Research Advisory Board .  Results of rankings of four research proposals were presented.  Three will be funded this year.  Of special interest concerning fish and wildlife resources is a project that will examine the potential subsurface transport of phosphorus to streams from poultry litter applications in the Ozarks region.  Results of three research projects from last year were presented as well, including a project that measured occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones and other wastewater contaminants in surface and cave water in two basins within and bordering the Ozark region.  Details of the four year process for updating the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan also were presented, including extensive public involvement.  The Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute will coordinate and facilitate this aspect.  Also during the meeting, research priorities for 2008 were discussed and eight draft priorities formulated.  These were later distributed to the Board members for comment.  Of special interest to the Service is a priority for developing a tool to facilitate determination of environmental flow needs in stream segments proposed for flow depletion.

FWS programs involved:       ES