The 1955 Congress passed Public Law 340, giving consent to Kansas and Oklahoma to negotiate and enter into a compact to apportion the waters of the Lower Arkansas River and its tributaries. On March 13, 1956, the first meeting of the Arkansas River Compact Committee took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the early stages of what were to be 26 meetings of the Committee, it formed the Engineering and Legal Subcommittees.
The Committees researched all existing historical hydrologic data throughout the basin and concluded that streamflows were highly erratic. Even in areas of the highest rainfall, streamflows ranged from zero or near zero to very high maximums. The Committee concluded that this condition demanded that reservoirs be constructed to regulate streamflows and sought to obtain as much conservation storage space as possible within reasonable economic and sociopolitical limits.
The conservation storage allocations that were ultimately agreed upon for the subbasins within the Compact area were based on streamflows that occurred during the 1952-1957 drought and the projected needs in the year 2000. The Committee agreed that storage allocations should provide flexibility and allow for unforeseen circumstances, especially for Kansas, the upstream state. Therefore, “escalator clauses” were placed in each subbasin allocation to allow an increase in storage capacity in Kansas as new storage capacity is constructed in the downstream state, Oklahoma. The Committee concluded that the Compact should contain provisions to ensure that federal storage—reservoir storage not provided at state or local expense—be operated in the best interest of both states.
The Committee believed that the existing streamflow gaging stations located near the state line were adequate for present needs and their operation should be continued. The Committee also found that the water quality of the river and its tributaries was of good mineral quality at or near the state line, and that chemical quality data collection should be continued. At the 1973 Committee Meeting, the Engineering Committee was instructed to include state line streamflow data in the Annual Reports for the Arkansas, Caney, Chikaskia, Cimarron, Grand-Neosho, Verdigris and Salt Fork Rivers. Since 1974, the Engineering Committee has included water quality data from available state line stations, as well as new or replaced conservation storage, in its Annual Reports.
In 1996, the Compact Commission requested that the Engineering Committee evaluate the then-current level of streamflow data and water quality data provided to the Commission and determine whether it was sufficient for Compact needs. The Engineering Committee recommended that the current level of hydrologic and water quality data is sufficient. This level of reporting continues.