27 May 2009

Wyoming Focuses on Future Uses of Water from Colorado River

State protects unused water for development of energy, agriculture

 

Wyoming does not use all the Colorado River water it is entitled to use for recreational, agricultural and energy purposes.

Wyoming does not use all the Colorado River water it is entitled to use for recreational, agricultural and energy purposes.

By Nancy L. Pontius
Special Correspondent

Littleton, Colorado — Unlike states in the lower Colorado River Basin, Wyoming does not use all the water from the river to which the state is entitled.

“Gravity takes most of the water before we can use it, so we aren’t using our full apportionment,” Pat Tyrrell, Wyoming state engineer, told America.gov.

Wyoming is entitled to 14 percent of the water available to all the upper basin states. This water is designated mostly for irrigating crops, but also for industry and municipalities.

Most of the water for the entire river basin originates in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, where water is stored as snow in the mountains, which later melts and “feeds the rest of the Colorado River Basin for the year,” Tyrrell said.

But “we don’t have the infrastructure to use the remaining 200,000 to 300,000 acre-feet [247 million to 370 million cubic meters] of water that we are entitled to,” he said.

 

Biologists search for endangered chub in a creek that drains into a Wyoming tributary of the Colorado River.

Biologists search for endangered chub in a creek that drains into a Wyoming tributary of the Colorado River.

For example, although Wyoming faces water shortages for agriculture in the late summer every year, Wyoming has not constructed dams to store the water flowing from the state during snowmelt in the early summer.

“The lower basin states have essentially used or overused their full apportionment, while the upper basin is not using all of ours,” Tyrrell said.

Growth in the southern basin states has outpaced the northern states for many years. “When the 1922 River Compact was [negotiated], the lower basin states were developing faster than the upper basin states, [and] the compact was intended to protect water for the future for the upper states,” he said.

“My Number 1 priority is protecting our unused apportionment for whatever demand [Wyoming] may have in the future,” which might include increased energy production, agricultural needs or population growth, Tyrrell said. “Wyoming has the ability to generate power for the country.”

“We are concerned that a future drought and full development in the lower basin may not allow Wyoming to use the remaining 200,000 to 300,000 acre-feet [247 million to 370 million cubic meters] we are entitled to,” he said. “We just want what was promised to us. [The lower basin] cannot be allowed to grow forever by using unused water from the upper basin.”

Only one of the participating U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Colorado River dams (Fontenelle Reservoir on the Green River) exists entirely in the state for Wyoming’s use. “Beyond that, Wyoming’s primary obligation to the basin is to monitor our water use and make sure we are within our own apportionment,” Tyrrell said. “Within our state, we can manage our water supply as we see fit without any outside influence.”

More information is available at the Wyoming State Engineer’s Web site.