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What's New: Current Projects: Lake Texoma State Park, OklahomaStop the Privatization of Lake Texoma State Park, Oklahoma Headlines
Background: The area around Lake Texoma includes two wildlife refuges, two state parks, fifty four Army Corps managed parks, twelve marinas, twenty-six resorts, hundreds of campgrounds and a variety of excellent golf courses. Lake Texoma is the most developed and most popular lake administered by the Army Corps of Engineers' Tulsa district. Power boating, sailing, personal watercraft, water skiing and wind surfing are all popular pursuits. The lake is also an extremely popular fishing destination. The lake was stocked with striped bass in the 1960's and has proven exceptionally good habitat for them. It is one of only 7 lakes in the U.S. where striped bass reproduce naturally. They feed on large schools of shad and regularly reach sizes of 12 to 20 pounds. In 1996, Lake Texoma State Park, on the North part of the lake, was Oklahoma's most popular and profitable state park. Privatization of Lake Texoma State Park: In 1999, Governor Keating's massive budget cuts laid the groundwork for selling off ten golf courses and four state parks operated by the OK Tourism & Recreation Department. "The federal Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) of 1999 directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to sell valuable OK lakefront land at Lake Texoma State Park and Hugo Lake. This federal public land was sold to the State of Oklahoma and the Choctaw County Industrial Authority respectively which then quickly resold it to private developers at questionable prices." The state and federal lands comprising Lake Texoma State Park have also been quietly undervalued and hastily sold to Pointe Vista Development by members of the Oklahoma School Lands Trust - Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO), working in collaboration with the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department (OTRD). The 2008 Water Resources and Development Act directed the Corps of Engineers to create the Oklahoma Demonstration Lakes Program to strongly encourage private development on Corps managed lakes in leased state parks, undeveloped and low-density zoned areas. The program, coordinated with the State of Oklahoma, created new guidelines to benefit private developers in dealing with normal Corps procedures that protect public lands. This legislation appears to be being implemented as a mandate to significantly increase the privatization and commercialization of valuable federal and state lake area public lands. Once the Oklahoma Lake Demonstration Program is implemented it may be repeated in other states where the developers can obtain prime and often pristine public shoreline land. Public water and habitat protection can be lost nation-wide for future generations.
Circumventing laws: The transfer of 1,580 acres of land from the public trust into private hands certainly constitutes a "major federal action significantly affect the environment" which requires an EIS. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the production of a detailed statement(s) assessing the environmental impact of and alternatives to the action (commonly referred to as an Environmental Impact Statement or EIS). However, the OK Tourism Department is dragging their feet and has not yet produced an EIS for the current sales of areas A and B or the proposed sale of area C. Pointe Vista has asserted that they are NOT going to produce an EIS which has an anticipated price tag of $2 million. On August 10, 2004, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent a request to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agencies and interested parties, requesting comments on their proposed land transfer at Lake Texoma State Park. Their proposed action would transfer 564 acres of the park to the Oklahoma Commissioners of the Land to be sold at "fair market price." In a letter dated October 6, 2004, Jerry Brabander, the Field Supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Tulsa, wrote, "Lacking precise information on the location of these lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot provide you a site specific species list" as required by the Endangered Species Act. Brabander said, "The federally-listed species likely to occur near Lake Texoma would include the bald eagle, interior least tern, piping plover, whooping crane, and American burying beetle. The direct and indirect effects on these federally-listed species must be addressed before proceeding with your proposed action." In regards to the land sale, Brabander commented that the Corps "frequently permits actions" that cumulatively impact wildlife habitat at Corps projects. Lands previously available for public uses such as camping, hiking, hunting and fishing, frequently then become unavailable to the general public. In our opinion, the cumulative impact of these actions is that wildlife habitat is degraded, fragmented or eliminated and little or no mitigation is provided to offset these impacts. Such an approach violates the intent of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act and NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act - Environmental Impact Study). This proposed action is another example of project lands and wildlife habitat being affected without any assessment of cumulative effects. (from Friends of Lake Texoma January 2009 Newsletter) At least 7 projects at the Lake Texoma State Park were paid for with funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) administered by the National Park Service (NPS). The LWCF requires NPS will not approve the conversion of funded lands covered by a LWCF 6(f)(3) boundary map to other than recreational uses until the conversion is shown to be in accord with a statewide recreation plan and until replacement lands of equal or great value and equivalent usefulness and location are identified. As early as 1999, the OTRD Director of Planning and Development, Kris Marek, has acknowledged that the entire park was protected by the LWCF, stating in a letter that "Since all of Lake Texoma State Resort Park is basically within the 6F boundary, we have reviewed the proposal (referring to a proposal for the Chickasaw Pointe Golf Course) and see no decrease in the available recreation estate. . .. If this use alteration (conversion) is approved, the new golf course would be protected under the 6F requirements of the law." Susan Henry, LWCF grants administrator for OTRD wrote in a response to requests for input to an Environmental Assessment (EA) conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2004 "The LWCF Section 6F provides that any use of land within this park for other than park and recreation purposes would be a conversion and would be prohibited." At this time, the Corps was studying the potential sale of 564 acres of federal lands to the OK Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO) to be leased for a very limited commercial and residential development in the Chickasaw Pointe area located north of US Highway 70. This plan also called for the complete revitalization of the park, Resort and Golf Course to the south of US 70, to complement the public/private partnership at Chickasaw Pointe. However, the CLO never informed the Corps of their intent to sell the federal lands to a private developer and displace the entire park. Congresswoman Mary Fallin said of this original land conversion plan in a statement to KTEN news "The Legislature voted to pass legislation in the early 2000's to authorize the sale of the lodge and other property to private developers because they agreed the cost of replacing or refurbishing the 50-year-old lodge should not have been borne by the taxpayers. Under the plan, the Commissioners of the Land Office were designated as the state agency that would deal with private developers and finalize the sale of the property."" (from July 14, 2008 KTEN story) Follow the money: It is interesting to note that several of the elected representatives who are supporting this land conversion have received financial support from project backers. In mid 2006,through his energy company's political action committee, Aubrey Mclendon contributed two $2,100 donations to "Cole for Congress." Two months later, Mclendon exercised his first amendment right once again by making the same contributions to "Fallin for Congress." In March of 2007, U.S. Representatives Tom Cole and Mary Fallin attached language to legislation that would make it more likely to be signed into law. The wording in the bill, which later passed, called for Oklahoma to keep 27 acres of shoreline from the federal government to in turn sell to Pointe Vista. (from July 14, 2008 KTEN story) Friends of Lake Texoma State Park called upon OK Attorney General Drew Edmonson in a letter dated January 15, 2009 to halt the illegal conversion of land around Lake Texoma. The letter references many documents received through the OK Open Records Act that support the group's claims. It also sets forth seven reasons for the AG to enjoin OTRD from further conversion of the park and to invalidate the earlier land sales. These include: failure of the OTRD LWCF manager to consult with the NPS prior to beginning the conversion process and park closure, failure of CLO and OTRD to comply with NEPA, failure to provide replacement lands under the LWCF requirements and the misleading of the US Army Corps about the intended use of former Corps lands. These land sales are not yet complete! It is not too late to stop this rampant sell off of public recreational lands!! LINKS: Read the Friends of Lake Texoma State Park Newsletter 11-28-2006 - KTEN News: Lake Texoma Lodge Privatization 02-14-2007 - Gov. Brad Henry Requesting Additional Acreage Purchase at Lake Texoma 10-30-2007 - Lake Texoma deal waits for bill to clear 05-23-2008 - Choppy Waters: Developers Running into Problems as they try to buy Resort Land 05-28-2008 - Sale of Lake Texoma lodge, golf course finalized 06-20-2008 - State land sold to developers 07-14-2008 - KTEN An In-Depth Look at Development on Lake Texoma 01-19-2009 - Durant Democrat - Citizens demand Oklahoma AG Edmondson enforce laws at Lake Texoma 01-19-2009 - First 12 News - Local group says Pointe Vista not obtaining development land legally Pointe Vista Purchase Agreement Documents |
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Over 1,500 acres of Lake Texoma State Park and surrounding public lands are in the process of being taken by a powerful group of businessmen, including Chesapeake Energy's CEO, Aubrey K. McClendon, and Chaparral Energy's CEO, Mark Fischer,(co-owners of Pointe Vista Development), with the bipartisan assistance of former Governor Frank Keating, U.S. Senator James Inhofe, State Senator Jay Paul Gumm, and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry. The perpetrators of this taking of public recreational lands are blatantly disregarding environmental laws and procedures put in place to safeguard the public's access to its public trust lands. 
The land in and surrounding Lake Texoma was taken by the federal government in the 1940's for the public good and use such as flood control. The subsequent Corps land use and zoning was established to maintain a balance between lakeside development and the environment. Federal public-use areas were dedicated or zoned around the lake for parks, recreation areas, wildlife habitats and as critical shoreline buffers for onshore developments. Numerous areas were provided for high-density public recreational development around the lakes shoreline. The proposed development would change the usage of Lake Texoma in favor of extensive commercial and "private" residential developments around the lakeshore. The developers claim the property will be used for public recreation, but the high end resorts, residences, golf courses and boat slips are likely to be priced far above what most families can afford.