Rep. Phil Richardson has set a simple, easy-to-grasp agenda for the first meeting of the Joint Legislative Water Committee on Wednesday: Interstate compacts and Indian water law and treaties.

Just kidding around—those may be basic study areas for anyone launching a study of Oklahoma water, but they are not simple and—particularly when it comes to tribes and water—hardly easy to comprehend.

“We just felt like the first thing we needed to know was what current law tells us,” Richardson said Tuesday.

That will include both state and federal water law.

“Then we wanted to take the tribal considerations in, what their view is on their legal standing,” said Richardson, R-Minco.

The joint panel, which Richardson co-chairs with Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, will hold several meetings through the fall to educate members on water-law basics, then consider a state water plan being developed by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The plan will be a major issue during the 2012 legislative session.

“I think having a kind of understanding of what the current law states is pretty darned important to know before we can advance much in the way of any kind of a plan to develop our water,” Richard said. “That’s the reason we felt like it was one of the more important things we need to discuss before we started getting into the nuts and bolts of the plan that the water resources board has put forth.”

The co-chairman said some issues, particularly those relating to tribal concerns, may be featured in more than one meeting.

“We just thought this was a basic place to start,” he said.

Two University of Oklahoma College of Law professors, Lindsay Robertson and Taiawagi “Tai” Helton, will address the complexities of water law and treaties as they relate to tribes.

Robertson teaches federal Indian law, comparative indigenous peoples law, constitutional law and legal history. He is director of the OU Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy and serves as a special justice on the Supreme Court of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes.

Helton teaches environmental, property and Indian law. He is a member of the board of directors of Oklahoma Indian Legal Services and is a special justice on the Supreme Court of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes.

The joint committee meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. in the House Chamber, will lead off with a discussion of interstate water compacts.

Speakers will include J.D. Strong, executive director of the OWRB and Dean Couch, general counsel, as well as Chuck DuMars, an attorney and emeritus law professor from the University of New Mexico School of Law, where he taught courses in both general and Indian water law. His law practice focuses on water and environmental law, interstate compact negotiations and litigation and other issues.