Oklahoma Water Resources Center is securing the future of Oklahoma’s water
Friday, December 19, 2025
Media Contact: Alisa Boswell-Gore | Office of Communications & Marketing, OSU Agriculture | 405-744-7115 | alisa.gore@okstate.edu
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Water Resources Research Act to create a nationwide network of water research institutes at land-grant universities to address the nation’s water challenges. In response, the Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute was established at Oklahoma State University in July 1965.
Sixty years later, the institute — now known as the Oklahoma Water Resources Center — has collaborated with hundreds of entities to improve and sustain Oklahoma’s water resources, while supporting student education.
“We take a collaborative approach to addressing the key water issues in Oklahoma, and those evolve over time as new laws and regulations come into play or as new problems are discovered,” said Dr. Kevin Wagner, the water resources center director. “Currently, we focus a lot on drought-proofing the state and improving water quality.”
The Oklahoma Water Resources Advisory Board, comprising more than 20 water leaders from across the state, identifies the most pressing water issues facing the state. The water center facilitates research and outreach programs to address these concerns, conducting research and Extension programs in collaboration with a broad range of universities and partners.
One of the center’s most successful water quality education programs is the Oklahoma Well Owner Network, which hosts events that teach Oklahoma homeowners about well water contamination and provide free well water testing.
“At a higher level, the center is focused on conserving water for the future, with a lot of our research focusing on the Ogallala Aquifer and southwest Oklahoma,” Wagner said. “Declining water levels in the Ogallala have been a big issue for several years, and we’ve done a lot of work to improve irrigation efficiency and conserve water.”
Scientists affiliated with the water resources center have supported multiple studies on agricultural irrigation efficiency and the identification of alternative water sources. The Master Irrigator Program is a water conservation initiative that offers a four-day training course on irrigation scheduling, crop selection, and irrigation systems.
“I don’t think the Master Irrigator Program would have happened in Oklahoma without the collaborative efforts of the water center and OSU Extension. I am really proud of that,” Wagner said. “We have also supported OSU Extension’s Oklahoma TAPS program, which gives producers the opportunity to use these advanced irrigation technologies without risking losses to their own operations and without having to invest in the technologies.”
The Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program enables producers to utilize advanced irrigation technology with crops at OSU research stations through a farm management competition that spans a growing season. It provides a risk-free way for participants to test precision farming strategies and agricultural technologies before implementing them on their own farms.
A primary focus for the water center’s research is on water quality in relation to grazing lands. The largest land use in Oklahoma is grazing for livestock production. Livestock grazing is also one of the top factors affecting water quality in the state, along with wildlife.
“We’ve spent a lot of time looking at how wildlife impacts water resources and how different levels of grazing or different grazing management practices impact water quality,” Wagner said.
Important research related to this topic is the center’s work on virtual fencing in collaboration with several OSU departments. Virtual fencing uses collars to provide auditory and physical stimulation when cattle reach GPS boundaries rather than relying on a physical fence to aid in rotational grazing and prevent cattle from accessing sensitive water sources.
“We have a lot of plans to advance grazing management using artificial intelligence and advancing our knowledge on how virtual fencing impacts soil and water health,” Wagner said.
The reuse of water from oil and gas production is another area of interest for the water center. The average oil well produces about nine barrels of water per every barrel of oil, and in Oklahoma, roughly half of this water is disposed of deep underground. The water center is working with a team of OSU scientists and engineers to research the potential of treating and repurposing this wastewater for other uses.
“Much of our oil and gas production occurs in western Oklahoma, where we also need the water the most. If we can just figure out how to economically treat that water, we can help both agriculture and the oil and gas industry in the state,” Wagner said.
The center is currently collaborating with OSU researchers, as well as agency and industry partners, to establish a statewide produced water consortium aimed at identifying solutions and new opportunities for treating and reusing produced water. The water center is also launching a new initiative focused on urban water resource issues, including storm water management, flooding, drought preparedness and water reuse.
Wagner said collaboration is key to everything the water center does.
“I feel good about the collaborations we’ve established in the past several years,” he said. “We don’t have a large staff or state-level funding, so we really depend on grants and collaborations for conducting the work that we do.”