Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

4.0 AGENCY PLANNING RECOMMENDATIONS
value of water for these purposes, and future plans can provide a forum for the public to provide input on
whether increased flexibility is desired by water right holders for these uses of water.
Transbasin Diversions
The movement of water from areas of relative surplus to areas of need is woven through the water
development history of the West, including Wyoming. It is an issue that can pit users in adjacent river
basins against one another in a provincial manner, or it can be a positive solution for the basin in need
while providing additional development in the basin of surplus via mitigation, all in the effort to better the
lot of the state as a whole. Transbasin movement of water is expensive, time-consuming, and fraught
with political and social debates.
However, it should never be taken out of the portfolio of options for water managers, and the
state itself, when it comes to solving water shortage problems. Wyoming will continue to see pressures
regarding transboundary movement of water and needs to respond to those pressures with creativity and
realism. As we move forward in time, with finite water resources and growing demands in parts of our
own state where the water supplies are fully appropriated, it is a water management alternative that will
be pursued more and more. Future water plans need to address the topic of transbasin diversions and the
ability of this type of project to meet water shortages elsewhere in the state.
Groundwater
Coal bed methane (CBM) development in the state has greatly increased the workload of the
Groundwater Division of the SEO. The extraction of CBM in other parts of the state is likely to expand
over the next few years.
During times of drought, groundwater resources are often developed to supplement dwindling
surface supplies. As more groundwater development occurs in the state, more calls for interference
investigations are likely to be received. Determining the impact of development of groundwater
resources on surface water supplies or other groundwater uses can be difficult and time-consuming.
The first river basin plans were generally cursory in their groundwater evaluations. This has been
recognized in the Green River Basin, and plans are under way to inventory the groundwater information
for that basin. As groundwater work is completed, the water planning process should bear in mind the
regulatory impacts such development will have. Accordingly, the basin plan should gather data helpful
to the regulatory functions of the SEO (such as for evaluating interference claims) as well as for
improving specific knowledge of the state’s groundwater resources.
Technology now exists for drilling and developing very deep groundwater wells, but energy costs
to produce these water supplies may be cost prohibitive depending upon the need for and use of the water.
Some western states are investigating the use of the treatment of shallower, brackish groundwater
supplies to determine if treatment costs could be less than the pumping costs of bringing higher quality,
but deeper, water to the surface for use. The applicability of substituting treated water supplies in
Wyoming is not known at this time, but those involved with river basin plan updates should remain
cognizant of this work, and its applicability in Wyoming could be investigated further as part of future
water plans.
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