Measure would transfer Oklahoma’s Scenic Rivers Commission to GRDA

The Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission would become a division of the Grand River Dam Authority under a measure headed to the House floor.

The measure, Senate Bill 1388, originally passed the Senate as a move to allow GRDA to charge camping and other use fees as offroad activity has increased below Pensacola Dam and the entity entertains the idea of taking over some lakeside parks.

But the bill was amended in the House Appropriations and Budget Committee the last week of March to include the Scenic Rivers move.

The bill “transfers all functions, duties, assets, debts, property and employees of the Scenic Rivers Commission to the Grand River Dam Authority on or before July 1, 2016.” It also authorizes GRDA to establish fee structures for use of the rivers, parks and campgrounds.

Federal rules

The Scenic Rivers Commission was established in 1977 to carry out provisions of the federal Scenic Rivers Act in protecting the Illinois River and its tributaries, essentially a move to avoid federal regulatory takeover of the waterways.

Longtime SRC administrator Ed Fite said consolidation has been discussed for years as funding for the agency continually dwindled.

“What we’re talking about now is being done solely because there is no money,” he said.

Shrunken budget

Shrinking state appropriations and a legislative change to boating-fee structures in 2008 have repeatedly cut the commission’s budget. Staff has been reduced from 11 to 4½ positions as the agency runs on an annual budget of less than $500,000, he said.

“We’ve been dying a death of a thousand cuts,” Fite said. “This is not our first time to approach the idea of consolidation, but this time around it’s looking like this is going to have a great probability of passing because of ever-decreasing state funds for all agencies.”

Not opposed

Fite said he has known Dan Sullivan, GRDA’s CEO, since they attended Northeastern State University and said the move is the best way to preserve the Scenic Rivers mission.

“Dan Sullivan is the first agency director to enthusiastically stand up in the Legislature and say ‘we’ll take ‘em, and we’ll fund them,’ ” he said.

That a power company and an environmental organization make odd bedfellows was not lost on Sullivan, but he said GRDA is much more than a power company.

He acknowledged that many people see GRDA only as a power company, or a lakeside enforcer, depending on their most common contact with the agency.

“GRDA was created in 1935 as a conservation and reclamation district for the waters of the Grand River. No one knew for sure then that a dam would be built,” he said. “Water quality is a big part of our mission, and as Ed (Fite) has said, maintaining water quality is a job that’s never finished.”

Multiple roles

Commenting on the issue Thursday, Sullivan said he was standing outside the water quality lab in the GRDA Ecosystems and Education Center at Langley.

He pointed out the GRDA serves the Tahlequah and Stillwell communities, already has outdoor recreation enforcement capabilities, has engaged in water-quality awareness programs with residents of the Grand River watershed and faces the same water-quality issues, including high phosphorous levels flowing in from neighboring states, as the Illinois River drainage.

“There actually is a lot of synergy there,” he said.

“If you consider the importance of the mission and the lack of funds available, particularly in this difficult budget time, I don’t see another viable option.”

Sullivan echoed Fite’s assessment of the political atmosphere and guessed the bill will pass this session.

Value preservation

Among priorities, Fite said, the bill must preserve the core values of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Act, that staff members retain their jobs, and that current planning efforts and working relationships among Oklahomans and across state lines be maintained.

“The population was approximately 173,000 in the (Illinois River) basin when I stared in 1983; it’s now over 600,000,” he said. The river annually attracts about 500,000 visitors, he added.

In spite of increased private and commercial recreational use, increased population and intensive farming, water quality has improved from a low point in the 1980s, he said.

Sullivan said change would come slowly.

“The main idea right now would be to continue the status quo until we have an opportunity to sit down and look over everything,” he said.