The Oklahoma Water Resources Board approved a study Tuesday of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer.

Board members authorized their chairman and vice chairman to review and then enter into an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to evaluate the basin.

In short, the study will identify how much water the aquifer stores, where the water comes from and how it gets there.

The study's ultimate goal is to evaluate how much water could be taken from the basin for use elsewhere without causing any harm.

Arbuckle-Simpson became an issue for state officials in 2002 when an Oklahoma City-area group created the Central Oklahoma Water Resource Authority to promote the construction of an 88- mile-long pipeline to bring water from the aquifer to member communities for consumption.

Communities represented by the authority, primarily in Canadian County, are looking for new sources of drinking water because of tougher federal environmental rules.

Some of these communities could buy the additional water they need from Oklahoma City, but local officials say it would cost too much.

Southern Oklahoma residents use the aquifer as a source of water to support their own homes and communities.

The aquifer also supports area lakes, streams and rivers that are supplied with spring water. The basin is believed to be in a 500-square-mile area under Pontotoc, Johnston, Murray and Carter counties.

State officials said they expect the work to take several years to complete.

So far, state and federal officials have appropriated $550,000 for the project and are splitting the costs equally.

Officials expect the evaluation of the aquifer will cost $5.1 million.

Mike Mathis, chief of the Water Resources Board's planning and management division, said the study will be a lengthy, complex process.

Initial study work will concentrate on reviewing what already is known about the basin.

The study also will evaluate surface water and groundwater qualities, quantities and uses, and how weather and land uses affect them.

The topography of land over the aquifer will be studied, as will other geological and petroleum-related information for the area.

The study may involve drilling test wells, Mathis said.

"We don't have a lot of deep well logs to know what is going on beneath the surface," he said.

The study was prompted by Senate Bill 288, which legislators approved earlier this year.

The measure imposed a moratorium on temporary permits to pump groundwater from the Arbuckle-Simpson for "any municipal or public water supply use" outside of any county "that overlays in whole or in part" its basin of origin.

The moratorium is to remain in effect until the state/ federal hydrological study is finished and its recommendations are adopted.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Danny Hilliard, D-Sulphur, worked for the bill's passage.

On Tuesday, Hilliard said he was pleased to see the study authorized by the Water Resources Board. Like Mathis, he said it is important the review be completed.

"This study has got to be done," Hilliard said. "That aquifer is going to be in demand even more so in the future than it is today so we need to know what's there."