Filed by KOSU News in State Impact.
December 14, 2012

sasha55068 / flickr.com

Lake Thunderbird is Norman's main source of drinking water, and classified as 'impaired' by the EPA.

Lake Thunderbird, the main drinking water source for Norman, is classified as “impaired” by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

So, the state Department of Environmental Quality is required to submit a report on how polluted Thunderbird can be while still meeting EPA standards, known as ‘total maximum daily loads.’

But as The Norman Transcript‘s Joy Hampton reports, it took several years and a lawsuit by the conservancy district in charge of the lake to get DEQ to comply.

From The Norman Transcript:

“They (DEQ) had delayed the TMDL a number of times,” Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District Manager Randy Worden said. “The district initially filed against the DEQ back in ’07, and that was to make DEQ perform a TMDL on Little River and Lake Thunderbird.”

But DEQ couldn’t meet the time restraints.

“The court ordered that done by April 2010 — it was supposed to be completed. DEQ didn’t even start by then.”

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