Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

Executive Summary
Canyon of the Snake River. Thousands visit the river each year for rafting, kayaking, fishing, and
other activities. In addition to the Snake River and Jackson Lake, there are numerous rivers,
streams, and lakes throughout the basin that are used for recreation. Other activities that utilize
or require water in some form include waterfowl hunting and winter sports such as skiing.
ENVIRONMENTAL WATER USE
Water features such as rivers, streams, and lakes are an integral part of the landscape and environment
in the Snake/Salt River basin. Among the various uses of water studied as part of the
basin plan, this report also looks at the use of water for environmental purposes. Many of these
uses are controlled by man to maintain or improve existing conditions, while others, such as wetlands,
may occur naturally and are subject to management by various means. Environmental uses
and topics covered in the basin plan include maintenance flows, wetlands mapping and projects,
Snake River restoration, cutthroat trout management, big game habitat, downstream salmon
recovery efforts, instream flow water rights, and water quality.
MAJOR RESERVOIRS
All of the major reservoir facilities in the Snake/Salt River basin are owned and managed by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation and hydropower production in Idaho. Jackson Lake
Dam and Grassy Lake Dam are managed as part of the Minidoka Project, which provides irrigation
water for over 1 million acres of farmland in Idaho. Palisades Dam, part of the Palisades
Project, is also managed in conjunction with the Minidoka Project.
AVAILABLE SURFACE WATER
Surface water availability in the Snake and Salt River basins is a matter of physical supply, availability
with respect to others' uses, and basinwide compact limits. In both the Salt and Snake
basins, a new appropriation in a tributary basin will be limited by local supply, and without storage,
may be severely limited in some months of the year. On the other hand, overall water supply
in the basin greatly exceeds current use. On the main stems of both rivers, and in the larger tributaries
of the Snake, the compact is more limiting than physical supply relative to existing
demand. There are locations and months in which the entire annual compact allowance could be
diverted within one month. Thus the supply available to any given proposed use varies greatly
across the basin, and could be impacted by concurrent development of the compact allowance
elsewhere in the basin. Table 1 summarizes surface water availability.
AVAILABLE GROUND WATER
Ground water is a relatively abundant resource in the Snake/Salt River basin. Subsurface materials
are saturated with water from the water table, a relatively short distance below land surface
Snake/ Salt River Basin Plan
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