Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

5.0 USE
The amount of industrial water use varies from almost none in some river basin planning areas
such as in the Snake/Salt River Basin to fairly large amounts of water being used such as in the Platte
River Basin. Current use by the industrial sector is described in this section.
5.4.2 Current Water Use
Coal-fired electric power generation plants are currently located in three of the seven river basin
planning areas: the Northeast Wyoming River Basin , Green River Basin, and Platte River Basin.
Four coal-fired electric power plants are now operating in Northeast Wyoming. Three of the
plants, Neal Simpson #1, Neal Simpson #2, and Wyodak #1, are near the Wyodak Mine seven miles east
of Gillette. All three of these plants use air rather than water for cooling steam produced during electric
power generation. As a result, their water consumption is significantly lower than the more conventional
water-cooled electric power plants. The only water-cooled electric generating facility in Northeast
Wyoming is the Osage Station, located near Osage in Weston County. Total annual consumptive water
use for power production at these plants is approximately 1,200 acre-feet.
Two coal-fired electric power plants are located in the Green River Basin: the Jim Bridger Power
Plant near Point of Rocks in Sweetwater County and the Naughton Power Plant south of Kemmerer in
Lincoln County. The Naughton Plant has a production capacity of 710 megawatts (MW) and
consumptively uses approximately 13,500 acre-feet of water annually from the Hams Fork River. The Jim
Bridger Plant has a production capacity of 2,000 MW and consumptively uses approximately 34,300 acrefeet
of water annually from the Green River. Much of the power from the Naughton Plant is exported via
transmission lines to Utah, while much of the power from the Jim Bridger Plant is exported to PacifiCorp
customers in the Pacific Northwest.
In the Platte River Basin, the Laramie River Station in Platte County is operated by Basin Electric
Power Cooperative and has a generating capacity of 1,670 MW. This plant uses about 23,250 acre-feet of
water annually. The Dave Johnston Power Plant located in Converse County is owned and operated by
Rocky Mountain Power and has a generating capacity of 817 MW. This plant uses about 8,600 acre-feet
of water annually.
For surface water, the Green River Basin leads in industrial water use with an estimated 66,280
acre-feet. The Northeast Wyoming River Basin, Powder/Tongue River Basin, and Platte River Basin also
use fairly large quantities of groundwater for industrial purposes. Table 5-8 shows the estimated present
use of surface water and groundwater for industrial purposes. Some of the river basin plans did not
estimate use for the minor sectors such as aggregate mining, concrete production, manufacturing, road
and bridge construction, and miscellaneous industrial use. Many of these minor uses exist in all of the
river basin planning areas; however, the Platte River Basin plan had the most all inclusive list of
industrial use. Due to the differences in methods used in the seven river basin planning area studies, the
totals shown in Table 5-8 may not accurately reflect industrial use.
Figure 5-6 shows the locations of industrial and miscellaneous wells. Miscellaneous use is a
beneficial use category used by the SEO to categorize small yield wells where there is no defined major
use. Total current industrial surface water use for Wyoming is estimated to be 124,490 acre-feet per year.
Total current industrial groundwater use is estimated to be 246,130 acre-feet per year.
More extensive discussion of the individual river basin industrial water uses can be found in the
individual river basin plans and associated technical memoranda.
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