{{Infobox body of water
| name = Okemah Lake
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| location = Okfuskee County, Oklahoma
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| type = Reservoir
| etymology = Named for City of Okemah
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| inflow = Buckeye Creek (Oklahoma)|Buckeye Creek)[1]
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| outflow = Buckeye Creek[1]
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| date-built = 1963 [2]
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| area = 679 square miles (1,760 km2)Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). The City of Okemah owns and operates the reservoir.[1]
The lake was formed by building an earthen dam across Buckeye Creek, Oklahoma, a tributary of the Deep Fork River. It receives water from a 20.44 square mile drainage area. The main dam is 1,000 feet long by 60 feet high, supplemented with an 850-foot long dike.[1]
2018 Oil Spill
editAn oil leak into Okemah Lake was reported December 17, 2018, coming from the direction of Buckeye Creek. Okemah's interim City Manager, Dustin Danker, said that the source was an abandoned oil pipeline that had been ruptured by a fallen tree. He said that city employees had put an absorbent boom around the leak site to prevent contain the leaking oil and to keep it from moving further into the lake. As of December, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had taken charge of the cleanup efforts and was searching for the owner of the pipeline, who would be held liable for cleanup and remediation. Danker told an interviewer that another oil leak had occurred in May 2017, in the same general area, but that it had not been from the same source.[3]
A subsequent report said that the ruptured pipeline is owned by Enerfin Resources. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission still has no estimate of when the leaked oil will be cleaned up. The containment booms are still in place as of February 25, 2019.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Hydrographic Survey of Okemah Lake. Oklahoma Water Resources Board (ORWB). December 15, 2006. Accessed February 28, 2019.
- ^ "Okemah Lake, Oklahoma." anglerhub. Accessed January 29, 2019.
- ^ Thompson, Kay. "Ruptured pipeline causes oil to leak into Okemah Lake." Okemah News Leader. December 22, 2018. Accessed February 28, 2019.
- ^ "Oil leak under investigation at Okemah Lake." OK Energy Today. February 25, 2019. Accessed February 28, 2019.
Category: Reservoirs in Oklahoma
Category: Reservoirs created in 1963
Category: Geography of Okfuskee County