Cedar Lake Evidence Project
Response to Web Inquiry 3078 · August 31, 2026 at 12:54 p.m. Central

What the OWRB production establishes

OWRB responded to the project's August 31 comprehensive request with a Box production and represented that it contained all requested Cedar Lake and Coffee-dam information. The production materially improves the regulatory record, but an item-by-item review did not locate several expressly requested categories and does not supply a reproducible answer to how much Dams 5 and 6 changed Cedar Lake inflow.

Archive control

103 production PDFs

The Box production contains 103 PDFs totaling 203.4 MB, with 86 unique files after duplicate control. Most files carry July authoring or assembly dates; OWRB delivered the production in response to Web Inquiry 3078 on August 31.

Completeness status

Agency representation; disputed completeness

OWRB stated that the Box folder contained all requested information. Initial reconciliation did not locate the complete Cedar Lake investigation and datasets, private-well laboratory package, complete consent-order materials, or Cedar Lake water-right history. Production completeness remains under review.

Reported · August 31–September 3, 2026

Completeness follow-up and written reply

The project submitted a twelve-item completeness follow-up: five categories not located, three partly represented, and four procedural items. OWRB's written reply said it would resend the Cedar Lake presentation through Box but did not provide item-by-item answers. A 72-slide presentation file has been adopted by this project as an OWRB records-production item delivered through Box; archive inventory listing is pending. It is byte-identical to Box file 2406118218844, version v4 as served on September 1, 2026 at 18:49 CDT. Whether it is the requested approximately 69-page investigation remains unresolved; its substantive statements are attributed to OWRB, have not been independently reproduced, and are not republished here. On September 2, 2026, a domain-authenticated OWRB Public Information response stated that the presentation is not for distribution in any individual slide or in its entirety and that the project's clarification (Web Inquiry 3086) had been forwarded to OWRB's legal department for further review. The response did not state a legal or policy basis for the asserted restriction.

Inquiry 3090 · September 3. OWRB responded to the project's separate Cedar Lake Dam (OK11073) structural-and-engineering records request and provided a 29-PDF DamSafety Box set. All 29 PDFs were byte-identical to files already included in the August 31 Coffee Dam production. Extracted-text review and full-page OCR covering 131 pages located no record responsive to the request's eleven numbered OK11073 categories within that review scope. The delivered files contain incidental Cedar Lake or OK11073 context, including three PDFs with the exact identifier, but container counts are not counts of unique records. This review does not establish OWRB's holdings outside the delivered set. OWRB has not supplied an item-by-item no-records, withholding, format, custodian, or referral disposition.

Verified scope

Six dam IDs resolved

OWRB records identify Coffee Dams 1-6 as OK30688, OK30689, OK30690, OK30691, OK30692 and OK30686. Cedar Lake Dam is OK11073.

September 18, 2025 inspection · CLE-02-044

OWRB measurements and condition observations

  • Dam 1 · OK30688: 40 ft · 216 AF maximum storage · fair condition
  • Dam 2 · OK30689: 29 ft · 205.1 AF maximum storage · poor condition
  • Dam 3 · OK30690: 27 ft · 89 AF maximum storage · fair condition
  • Dam 4 · OK30691: 18 ft · 64.1 AF maximum storage · poor condition
  • Dam 5 · OK30692: Poor condition; OWRB describes it as directly upstream of Cedar Lake Dam
  • Dam 6 · OK30686: 33 ft · 119 AF maximum storage · fair condition; no application or valid permit found at the June 2025 inspection

Measurements are OWRB approximations derived from site survey and available LiDAR unless otherwise noted. Condition ratings describe the inspection date, not current condition.

Jurisdiction and compliance

All six were treated as jurisdictional

The June 2025 Dam 6 warning and November 2025 Dams 1-5 notice state that the structures met jurisdictional size thresholds. OWRB required a construction application for Dam 6 and applications for Dams 1-3; it requested Statements of Assurances for Dams 4-5.

Water rights

Five applications in the production

Files are present for 2026-0010 (Dam 6, C&F Ranch LC) and 2026-0012 through 2026-0015 (Dams 1-4, Coffee Grounds LLC). Production filenames describe them as pending. Dam 5's assurance was said by OWRB correspondence to require an associated stream-water application, but no Dam 5 application file appears in this production.

Engineering

Dam 6 drainage areas closely align

The production includes Dam 6 application forms, plans, H&H reports, a variance request and review correspondence. A February 2026 applicant-side H&H report models a 201-acre drainage area; Johnson-Becker's published StreamStats analysis reports 188.8 acres. The values are within about 6%, corroborating scale but not proving downstream causation.

Flow statement

A party statement, not measured streamflow

May 2026 correspondence says Pond 6 remained full and passed spring flow through its drain, while also stating that no streamflow estimate or filling history was available. This is a filed party statement and does not replace monitored inflow, storage, release or downstream-flow data.

Material omissions

What the production does not resolve

  • Whether the requested approximately 69-page Cedar Lake investigation and its appendices have been received; the adopted OWRB presentation may or may not be that investigation
  • Underlying lake-stage, precipitation, evaporation, seepage, groundwater and calibrated water-balance files
  • The complete 82-well laboratory package, QA/QC and chain-of-custody records
  • A complete Dam 5 stream-water application file
  • The referenced completed Dam 6 breach analysis
  • Complete current compliance histories and final dispositions for all dam and water-right applications
  • A verified reconciliation of the identical coordinates on the Dam 4 and Dam 5 assurance forms
Decision boundary

What this review does not conclude

The production verifies regulatory actions, identifiers, inspection observations and application activity. It does not establish current legal ownership, prove that a condition persists today, determine legal liability, or quantify Cedar Lake inflow with and without Dams 5 and 6. Hydrologic causation remains disputed pending the missing data and independent professional analysis.