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Tulsa County Signs Sponsor Agreement for Army Corps River Study

The dam at Lake Keystone
KWGS News file photo
The dam at Lake Keystone

Did you know a low-water dam is still in the works for Sand Springs?

Tulsa County Commissioners approved a sponsor agreement for it this week with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It’s a reminder the county can pay for the project and a commitment to preserve any historically significant finds during construction.

"I like to tell everybody that this is, like, a 50 step process and this is step No. 25 of that 50 step process, so I'd say we're a little bit more than halfway there — just barely — on getting this to fruition," said District Two Chief Deputy John Fothergill.

A Sand Springs low-water dam was in the original Vision sales tax package.

"This is the final part of that, to get the planning, engineering and design — or PED process, as the Corps calls it — going, so this is the last preliminary step before we actually get to the good stuff," Fothergill said.

The low-water dam is the main component of the Corps’ ecosystem restoration plan for the Arkansas River just past Keystone Dam.

In addition to a dam below the Highway 97 bridge, the plan calls for wetland restoration at Prattville Creek and construction of a sandbar island.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.