The city of Hugo, along with the Hugo Municipal Authority, has entered into a water purchase and sale agreement with the city of Irving, Texas. For that transaction to succeed, however, Hugo must first overcome an obstacle thrown in its path by Oklahoma's legislature - a moratorium on out-of-state sales that has now resulted in federal constitutional litigation.

The facts relating to how Hugo came to find itself in the middle of an Oklahoma water controversy have never been published. They have been told, repeatedly, but for a variety of reasons, mostly territorial and political, Oklahoma citizens have not heard Hugo's story.

Back in 1992 the Oklahoma Legislature overwhelmingly passed Senate Joint Resolution 31, which noted legislative approval of the sale of Sardis and Kiamichi River water to Texas. The bill was strongly supported by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and its Director Patty Eaton. No sale to Texas followed at the time, however, because, as Eaton explained in official correspondence to Lt. Gov. Jack Mildren, "Unfortunately, no user has come forward to contract for this water." The absence of a sale left the state in significant debt to the Corps of Engineers - a debt that remains to this day.

Ironically, Hugo is presently being taken to task for taking exactly the same position that the Water Resources Board and its director took in April, 1992 and the same path that the Oklahoma Legislature took when it passed SJR 31 on May 6, 1992.

In the absence of an out-of-state water sale, and fearful that Hugo Lake would fall under control of sources outside the basin which would not respect the lake's importance to the regional tourism economy, Hugo citizens explored ways to protect their beautiful lake and its vital economic role.

Hugo first approached the Tulsa Corps of Engineers concerning the possibility of "buying" additional storage, in effect raising the normal lake level from 404.5 feet mean sea level, to 409 feet, which was authorized by Congress when the lake was built.

Corps officials explained that Corps policy required that storage could not be sold to an entity that had not first obtained a state permit from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

Hugo citizens then turned to the OWRB in 2001 and sought the required permit for 80,000 acre feet (the amount of water this zone of the lake would hold.) This event was about the same time tribal negotiations under the Keating administration were underway and well before North Texas interests began to make multiple permit filings.

OWRB staff and leaders were very helpful to Hugo and encouraged Hugo to seek 200,000 acre feet knowing that the Kiamichi basin was gargantuanly large. The 200,000 acre feet was less than 15 percent of the average annual runoff of just one river.

Therefore, seeking to control the lake levels, and to protect its regional tourism economy, Hugo began the task of following state law and completed its permit request.

After Hugo's permit was filed, the courting process from virtually all north Texas entities began in earnest.

All wanted the water notwithstanding the substantial land acquisition and pipeline construction costs that such a transaction would require. Although Hugo was certainly more than happy to share its water resources with other Oklahoma cities, and openly offered to do so, no proposals were forthcoming.

Because Hugo owed a $2.5 million debt to the Corps of Engineers for its 1974 storage contract, city officials thought it financially prudent to put the unused water to beneficial uses that included not only the elimination of that debt, but also the promotion of much needed public health, safety and welfare services that had been ignored as a consequence of insufficient funding.

The passing of a moratorium in 2002 by the Oklahoma legislature brought Hugo's permit process to a halt, although its debt to the Corps of Engineers continues to grow just as the state's debt for Sardis Lake has soared.

During the fabrication of the moratorium bill, Hugo citizens pleaded for a "carve out" which would have given it the opportunity to sell its currently permitted water. Although legislators provided carve-outs for several small water districts elsewhere in Oklahoma which were selling water across state lines, absolutely no consideration was given to Hugo.