Conservation Construction Dollars at Record High

OCC Begins New Year With Almost $10 Million in Projects

The Oklahoma Conservation Commission will begin the new year with a record amount of dollars under contract for conservation projects. Three Abandoned Mine Land Program projects totaling $852,376, two Tar Creek Superfund Area reclamation projects totaling $2,847,676, and six Conservation Programs watershed projects totaling $4,634,416 were already underway in December. Those 11 projects total $8,334,468 in construction costs. Two more projects went out for bid in December and are scheduled to begin in January – an AML project and a watershed project have a total anticipated cost of $1,139,142, which will raise the overall total to $9,473,610.

“In my 28 years with the Conservation Commission, I have never seen this much conservation construction at one time,” said OCC Assistant Director Ben Pollard. “The OCC staff and our conservation district partners are to be commended for their efforts in putting conservation on the ground,” Pollard said.

Two of the AML projects underway, Greer Phase I and McPheeters, are in Rogers County Conservation District (CD) and the third, O’Neal, is in Sequoyah County. The new AML project now out for bid, the 61st Street North NE Project, is in Wagoner County. The two Tar Creek projects underway in Ottawa County CD are both within the city of Commerce. Four watershed rehabilitation projects are underway – Barnitz 14 in Dewey County CD, Sandstone 16A in Upper Washita CD, Cobb 2 in Deer Creek CD and Mill 18 in Johnston County CD. A rehabilitation project on Double Creek Site 2 in Caney Valley CD is out for bid. A watershed construction project is underway for Sugar Creek-Devil’s Canyon in South Caddo CD.