[Looking at history and our area’s unique political and religious attitudes.]

Water. This is one of the critical ingredients to support life. Unfortunately, it is often in a form that is not particularly usable. With the massive amounts of rain this week, we could easily relate to Samuel Coleridge from his 1798 poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” ‘Water, water, every where, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink.’

Like the old mariner, there may be beaucoup water, but it may not be fit for consumption. Rainfall, unless captured, simply returns to earth to refeed the aquifer. If taken from streams, rivers, and lakes, substantial processing is involved. The regional water system derives from man-made lakes in the eastern forested hills.

No public works discussion, or for that matter history, of Tulsa could be possible without W. R. Holway. After graduating from M.I.T. and working on a couple of city projects, the young 25-year-old William was hired by the not-yet-a-city to fix their filtration of Arkansas River water. Since it is saltier than sea water, he convinced his bosses to throw no more money at the project.

As far back as 1908, the wealthy oilmen that were funding the cowtown on the river had studied bringing water from Spavinaw Creek, 55-miles way, by gravity to supply the community of 70,000. This was a huge project at the time including building lakes, the longest such pipeline, and up to 84-inch pipe. With no highways yet, the project required a railroad and a new thing called telephone lines.

A brash project, by brash wealth, hired the brash 27-year old Holway as chief engineer. No way could the small city afford such a project, but names like Sinclair, Skelly, Getty, and Gilcrease made it the ‘Oil Capital of the World.’ They were used to dreaming big and doing big things with big money.

In four years, Holway completed the project. Not everyone was happy. Three Ku Klux Klan representatives, including his banker, confronted Holway about hiring three Roman Catholics. From then, he carried a loaded weapon.

The Spavinaw system was expected to supply the water needs for 25-years, delivering 60 million gallons per day by gravity flow to Lake Yahola, the local holding reservoir. Eighty-five years later, over half of Tulsa’s water was still coming from Holway’s system. Now, the Tulsa system supplies many surrounding smaller cities.

Just four years after that, in 1928, the oil leaders were a group of 47 local business men who signed the famous ‘Stud-Horse Note’ individually guaranteeing the construction of the airport.

Oh, we are not finished. The Grand River Dam Authority hired Holway as chief engineer of Henry Holderman’s vision for Pensacola Dam to retain the Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees in 1938. The project would not have been without Holway convincing President Roosevelt to provide WPA grants. The longest multiple-arch dam in the world, with a total length of 6,565 feet, was completed in 1940, ahead of schedule. It was the state’s first hydroelectric project. In 1952, Holway completed the Eucha dam upstream from Lake Spavinaw.

At 23 years of age, the always bold W.R. married Hope Kerr, a Radcliffe lass 7-years older. She was an active part of his engineering firm, as were their two sons. The couple, with Richard Lloyd Jones, were among the founders of All Souls Unitarian church, consistent with his upbringing as a Massachusetts Congregationalist. This became the largest Unitarian church in the U.S. A spin-off group founded with a son honored her as Hope Unitarian Universalist Church. She founded Tulsa Little Theater and wrote several history books.

What brings us to a story about local water? We live at the edge of settlement, with no municipal or rural water supply. We have a 400-foot deep water well with low flow and spent three long, full days this week working on the filters, injection system, and controls to keep potable water.

Our son-in-law, and down-the-laner neighbor, is completing their home and was working on their water filter, processing, and storage system. He was at Lowe’s buying over 4-digits worth of parts. The lady asked him about the mix of hardware and he explained it was for a water well system.

Her comment, ‘I wish I could have free water.’ She saw his parts cost, but it obviously did not register. She did not see the other stops or the substantially over five-digit drilling cost, or the hundred dollars a month in filters, injectors, and supplies.

Water is critical, but it is not cheap or inexpensive.

Think about it. The First Law of Thermodynamics, and the first natural law, still holds. ‘The sum of the energy in a closed system is zero.’ In common vernacular, TANSTAAFL, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. There are always costs and trade-offs. That Law affirms there is no free or clean energy, without heavy investment somewhere else. Just as there is no free water.