Spavinaw Water Project facts for kids
The Spavinaw Water Project was a huge plan to bring fresh, clean water to the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Back in the early 1900s, Tulsa was growing very fast, and it needed a reliable way to get enough water for all its people. This project was a big deal for the city's future.
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Why Tulsa Needed New Water
Tulsa started with water from nearby springs, but these weren't enough for the quickly growing city. In 1904, a pumping plant was built to get water from the Arkansas River. This water was sent to homes through a large pipe on Standpipe Hill.
However, the Arkansas River water wasn't very good for drinking or cooking. It had a lot of mud, salt, and a mineral called gypsum. Trying to get water from drilled wells didn't work well either, as the water was often salty or the wells dried up quickly.
By 1919, people in Tulsa were buying about 50,000 large bottles of drinking water every year because the city water wasn't good. Finding a new, clean water source became very important, but it also caused a lot of arguments among city leaders.
Looking for the Best Water Source
In 1915, a group of Tulsa business leaders started looking for better water options. They thought about places like Shell Creek, Spavinaw Creek, and the Grand River. But they couldn't agree on the best choice and the group broke up.
The next mayor, O. D. Hunt, thought filtering the Arkansas River water would be cheaper. He approved a plan to build a special plant for this. However, this plant didn't work as planned and was soon stopped. W. R. Holway, an engineer hired to fix the plant, said it was a waste of money to try and make the Arkansas River water drinkable because it had more salt than ocean water!
In 1918, another mayor, C. H. Hunt, hired H. A. Pressey to help solve the water problem. Pressey decided that Spavinaw Creek was the best source. His plan was to build a dam on Spavinaw Creek, create three smaller reservoirs, and use pumping stations to move the water closer to Tulsa. The water would then go into Tulsa's existing water system. This plan was estimated to cost $5 million. In 1919, people voted to approve the money for Pressey's plan.
But not everyone agreed. A group called the Taxpayers League, led by T. C. Hughes, opposed Pressey's specific plan, even though they liked the idea of using Spavinaw. They even filed a lawsuit to stop the city from selling the bonds needed for the project. The lawsuit went all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which stopped the bond sale.
The Shell Creek Idea
Around this time, a man named Charles Page owned a company that sold bottled water in Sand Springs. By 1916, he had built a dam on Shell Creek, creating Shell Lake, and offered to sell water from there to Tulsa.
This created a big competition between Page's idea and the Spavinaw plan. The two main newspapers in Tulsa took sides: the Tulsa Democrat (owned by Page) supported Shell Creek, while the Tulsa World (owned by Eugene Lorton) supported Spavinaw. In the end, tests showed that Shell Creek wouldn't have enough water for Tulsa's future needs, so Page's proposal was rejected.
Building the Lake Spavinaw System
Quick facts for kids Lake Spavinaw |
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 Lake Spavinaw
Location in Oklahoma
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| Location | Mayes County, Oklahoma |
| Coordinates | 36°22′54″N 95°02′52″W / 36.3818°N 95.0477°W |
| Primary inflows | Spavinaw Creek |
| Primary outflows | 275,000 cubic feet per second |
| Max. length | 2,400 ft (730 m) |
| Surface area | 1,636 acres (662 ha) |
| Average depth | 75 ft (23 m) |
| Surface elevation | 679 ft (207 m) |
| Settlements | Spavinaw, Oklahoma |
The idea of using Spavinaw Creek for Tulsa's water was first mentioned in a letter from Tulsa's mayor to the government, asking for help. T. C. Hughes, a city engineer, also studied maps and thought water could flow by gravity from Spavinaw all the way to a spot west of Catoosa, Oklahoma. He estimated this would cost about $100 million in 1912.
In 1920, Tulsa's mayor created a special water board. This board hired J. H. Trammell to plan the Spavinaw project, with W. R. Holway as his helper. Holway later took over the project. They found that the idea of water flowing by gravity from Spavinaw was not only possible but could bring water much closer to Tulsa, to a place called Lake Yahola.
The board then asked a famous engineer, George Washington Goethals, to check their plan and cost estimate. Goethals said the plan was good and that the estimated cost of $6.8 million was enough.
Construction on the Spavinaw Dam began on October 19, 1922, near the town of Spavinaw, Oklahoma. This spot is about 55 miles northeast of Tulsa. The dam created Lake Spavinaw, which is fed by Spavinaw Creek. The lake covers about 2.5 square miles and holds a lot of water.
In 1922, work also started on a long pipeline to bring this water from Lake Spavinaw to Lake Yahola, which is in Tulsa's Mohawk Park. The whole project cost $7.5 million. This has been Tulsa's main source of drinking water ever since.
Lake Yahola can hold 2 billion gallons of water. The dam was finished in 1924, and the pipeline started working that same year. It was the longest water pipeline in the United States at the time! Five years later, the city finished the Mohawk Water Treating Plant. This plant can clean 100 million gallons of water every day.
Expanding the Spavinaw Water System
To make sure Tulsa always had enough water, the city also built Lake Eucha on Spavinaw Creek, a little upstream from Lake Spavinaw. Lake Eucha was finished in 1952 and helped the Spavinaw system hold even more water.
In 1954, Tulsa completed a second pipeline from Spavinaw, which doubled the amount of water that could be brought to the city. The City of Tulsa reported that in 2009, they pumped an average of 103 million gallons of water per day.
Images for kids
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Coverage of the Spavinaw Water Project by the Tulsa World which was owned by Eugene Lorton
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Coverage of the Spavinaw Water Project by the Tulsa World
