Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

8.0 OPPORTUNITIES
Northeast, Wind/Bighorn) and to evaluate opportunities in the Bear River that had not been previously
ranked. This scoring matrix includes both monetary and non-monetary factors.
Monetary Factors
! Size – reservoir size in acre-feet.
! Irrigated Acreage – presently irrigated acreage.
! 2007 Total Project Costs – project costs updated to 2007.
! Unit Cost – project costs divided by project size.
! Sponsor’s Cost – cost per irrigated acre per year assuming WWDC financing (two-thirds
grant, one-third loan at 4 percent for 20 years).
! Comments
Non-monetary Factors
! Need – project need based on shortages.
! Water Availability – availability of water.
! Project Ability to Meet Need – project location and size relative to needs.
! Multiple Use Potential – potential for recreation, flood control, water quality improvement,
etc.
! Geotechnical Feasibility – preliminary geotechnical evaluation.
! Land Ownership – preliminary evaluation of landownership issues.
! Cultural Resources – preliminary evaluation of impacts.
! Environmental Impacts –preliminary evaluation of impacts on wetlands, riparian habitat,
wildlife, etc.
! Ability to Permit – comparative evaluation of potential for successful project permitting.
! Cost – relative evaluation of project costs versus project benefits.
! Total – total of non-monetary factor scores.
Each of the non-monetary factors was assigned a weighted value that reflects the importance of
that factor to project feasibility, and each potential project was assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each
factor.
8.2.4 Agricultural Needs
Chapter 6 outlines the projected future water needs for the seven river basin planning areas in the
state. Agriculture is the major water user in the state and exhibits the bulk of the seasonal shortage needs
across the state.
The estimates of existing agricultural need used in the Framework Scoring Matrix were based
upon full supply requirements. Full supply requirements were determined by applying the irrigation
water requirement to the actual irrigated acreage. The water requirement derived from this calculation
was compared to the historical diversions during dry years. The difference between the full supply
requirement minus the historical diversion is the estimated shortage.
The results of the agricultural water use estimates were used as inputs to the water availability
models prepared for the planning effort as discussed in Chapter 7. The modeling was used to determine
the availability of excess flows for future development and also as a means of determining where there
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