Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

4.0 AGENCY PLANNING RECOMMENDATIONS
4.0 AGENCY PLANNING RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents several specific planning goals, activities, and recommendations that
several state agencies have committed to performing.
4.1 WATER DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
Framework Water Plan
The Framework Water Plan serves to revisit the work performed over the past eight years on the
seven river basin plans for the following major purposes:
1. Provide a statewide perspective of the status of Wyoming’s water resources.
2. Define improvements to our planning efforts that can be used as the seven basin plans are
updated.
3. Identify water development opportunities to promote interest from potential project
sponsors.
Storage Projects
The Wyoming Water Development Program (the
Program) must remain committed to the construction of
reservoirs. Increased federal requirements have made the
construction of large dams on mainstem rivers very costly
and, absent federal reform to these requirements, virtually
infeasible. Therefore, the Program should concentrate on
smaller reservoirs on tributaries or off-channel reservoirs
where any environmental consequences can be effectively
mitigated and managed. In addition, enlargements of
existing reservoirs should be considered.
Reservoir projects are more feasible if the Program
works with project sponsors who are willing to commit political and financial capital towards the
construction, operation, and maintenance of the project. In these situations, the Program should fund the
permitting and design costs and provide construction funding commensurate with any water supply
benefits it may retain for environmental purposes or future marketing. The sponsor should be able to
retire a portion of the construction costs through a loan from the Program. The amount of the loan would
be based on ability to pay for the benefits that the sponsor will realize. The sponsor should be responsible
for operation and maintenance of the dam and appurtenances. The Wyoming Water Development
Commission (WWDC) and the Legislature’s Select Water Committee may need to revisit existing criteria
and statutes relating to the appropriate grant/loan mix for sponsors of storage projects. One of the goals
of this Framework Plan is to attract project sponsors who may be willing to develop a partnership with the
Program to pursue a storage project.
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