The dams are on property owned by former state senate leader Glenn Coffee. Cedar Lake residents say the dams are causing their wells to run dry and their lake to shrink.
OWRB staff say they haven't found evidence the dams are violating Cedar Lake's water right. They point to ongoing drought and groundwater depletion, although residents disagree.
Cedar Lake homeowner Sarah Harrington has spearheaded many of the community's efforts to address the water shortage.
"We have a Glenn Coffee manmade drought here on top of a natural drought that's obviously going on at the same time," Harrington said.
In July, the OWRB met to consider a consent order — a legally binding agreement to ensure Coffee's dams are up to regulatory standards as the permitting process continues. The order includes improvements Coffee needs to make to the dams and specific steps needed to attain permits.
Cedar Lake residents opposed the consent order as written, saying Coffee needed to release the water behind the dams.
At that time, the OWRB opted to postpone their vote. The board considered the consent order again Tuesday, as part of a summary disposition.
That means it was included with about 80 other business items, which were not discussed and were all approved with a single vote. Meeting attendees can ask for items to be removed from the summary docket and considered individually after the summary docket is introduced.
About 40 seconds passed from the introduction to the summary disposition agenda items to the conclusion of the vote. During that time, Cedar Lake resident Mark Sullivan made his way to the front of the auditorium to request the Coffee dam consent order be considered separately.
He reached the podium about 4 seconds after the board finished voting to approve the summary docket, including the consent order on the Coffee dams.
"Mr. Chairman, I'd like to request an item be removed from summary and placed for discussion," Sullivan said when he got to the podium.
"I asked for that," acting Chairman Bob Latham said. "Nobody responded, so the vote's already occurred."
"I was on my way down here while y'all were discussing," Sullivan said.
"Once again," Latham said, "the vote's already occurred."
After several angry crowd members addressed the board, expressing outrage and disgust at the handling of the summary disposition, many attendees filed out of the meeting room.
"Could you at least use some Vaseline?" one Cedar Lake resident lamented as he left the meeting.
A few hours after the meeting, Glenn Coffee held a press conference in the offices of his lawyer, George Corbyn.
Coffee and his brother own the property near Cedar Lake, but his father manages it. Coffee said his father did not believe the dams needed to be permitted but was working to comply with the OWRB's requirements now.
"All I can tell you is that my dad relied on experts that he believed were giving him the correct advice that he did not need to seek a permit," Coffee said.
Coffee said he had not communicated with Cedar Lake residents since this dispute began, except when he ran into one at a grocery store. But after the OWRB's decision on the consent order, he said, he wanted to propose an offer to the community.
"I am going to commit on behalf of the family a fund of $100,000," Coffee said. "But I'm asking them to do a 3 to 1 match and agree to get out of the posture of litigation. The purpose of the fund is to be seed money to help Cedar Lake form its own rural water district."
Coffee said he had not presented this offer to Cedar Lake residents or their homeowners association, the Western Sportsman Club, because they are currently without legal representation.
In an email response, Harrington wrote residents are prepared to talk to the Coffees.
"We have been ready to come to the table and negotiate a real offer," she said. "When [Coffee's attorney] George Corbyn calls me I will let him know to get the meeting set up ASAP, there's no reason to wait any longer."
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
