History of CPASA

The Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer has sustained much of south-central Oklahoma as a source of drinking water, water for crops and animals, recreation and economic development for centuries. CPASA is a grassroots citizen organization formed in 2002 in response to threats to the aquifer.

CPASA membership is made up of of citizens from throughout Oklahoma and other states. In the first week of October, 2002, in Tishomingo, the capital of the Chickasaw Nation, 661 people signed a petition addressed to Oklahoma elected officials urging the protection of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer . These citizens formed the nucleus of The Citizens for the Protection of Johnston County Water. Within the first year, as thousands of interested persons in the other counties overlying the aquifer became involved, the name of the organization changed to Citizens for the Protection of the Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer (CPASA).

The principal issue in the beginning was the proposed sale of vast amounts of water from the aquifer to an area of Oklahoma outside the aquifer's recharge area. With no chance of the water returning to replenish the aquifer after use, pumping and removal of the quantities suggested would have dried up the aquifer within a few years. Proponents of the plan argued that the water sellers (Roos, Clark, et. al.) were within their rights. CPASA held the position that the law was wrong and needed to be changed.

SB288 passed the Oklahoma Legislature in 2003 amid much controversy, as legislators, with CPASA support, waged a campaign to change a water law fashioned after oil and gas depletion rules. Whereas oil and gas may be crucial to our way of life, supporters of the bill argued that water is crucial to our life and should not be managed in the same way as oil and gas. In other words, exhaustion of the aquifer is tantamount to anniliating the people and the environment dependent on that water source. The new law applies only to the Arbuckle Simpson aquifer, but it's a sensible idea for all, because it establishes in law the scientific fact that underground water and surface water are connected.

With the law now supporting a sustainable use policy, CPASA continues to support legislation and economic growth that allow the waters of Arbuckle Simpson to sustain the people and the landscape of central Oklahoma. CPASA also continues to oppose the granting of permits which threaten to dry up the springs and streams emanating from the Arbuckle Simpson.

The organization is governed by a Board of Directors elected annually and Bylaws revised in 2006. Members of the Board represent the counties overlying all or part of the Arbuckle Simpson aquifer.

CPASA is a 501(c)(3) non-charitable organization.