USA under central Oklahoma . By the 1940s , it became clear that the rapidly growing city would need to add more resources . City leaders decided to dam the Little River in 1965 and create 6,000-acre Lake Thunderbird to provide Norman and other communities with a dependable drinking water source of around 7bn gallons a year .
To date , these two sources - direct supply from the lake and 31 Garber- Wellington wells - provide Norman with almost all of its supply . However , since 2000 the city has had an arrangement with Oklahoma City to provide emergency connection and supply a base flow of 1mn gallons per day ( mgd ) when needed . Since 1988 , when Norman first exceeded its allotted extraction , the water treatment plant ( WTP ) has exceeded its allocation 15 times . The demands on Lake Thunderbird have increased to the point that it cannot provide the City ’ s supply requirements on a continual basis , so the city is sinking an additional 12 wells into the aquifer to yield another two mgd . As Chris Mattingly , City of Norman Capital Projects Engineer explains : “ We are out of reserves ; we are treating all the lake water we are allowed to .” Currently the city
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