[4] The Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority (OMPA), a state governmental agency created in 1981 to provide wholesale electricity to cities and towns in Oklahoma,[5] purchased the substructure of the dam in July 1987 at a cost of $3.8 million and constructed a hydroelectric plant that was completed in September 1989 at a cost of $25 million.

[2] The plant at Kaw Dam provides power for over 35 municipal electrical systems in Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

The project engineer for the Kaw Lake dam was Everette W. Woodham, Jr.[4] The Corps of Engineers and Camp McFadden offers camping on the west shore of Kaw Lake at Ponca Cove.

The City of Enid began a project in 2020 to lay a 70-mile pipeline to tap Kaw Lake as a municipal water source.

[6] Camp McFadden is an outdoor recreational area on over 250 acres (1.0 km2) overlooking the west side of Kaw Lake near Ponca City, Oklahoma.