Green River Basin Advisory Group Public Meeting March 26 in Pinedale
To discuss the Wyoming State Water Plan
March 25, 2008
The Green River Basin Advisory Group will hold a Public Meeting on Wednesday, March 26th in Pinedale. The meeting will be held in the Lovatt Room of the Sublette County Library in Pinedale at 6:00 PM.
Topics to be discussed are:
- Town of Pinedale presentation by Gene Ninnie, Pinedale Town Engineer.
- Wyoming Trout Unlimited presentation by Scott Yates, Wyoming Water Project.
- Colorado River Basin Issues update by Pat Tyrrell, State Engineer.
For more information, contact the Wyoming Water Development Commission at 307-777-7626, http://waterplan.state.wy.us.
Excerpts from Current Issues for the Green River Basin (partial list):
- The Green River and its tributaries are the headwaters of the largest tributary of the Colorado River. The total area of the basin, including the Henry's Fork, Vermillion Creek and Little Snake River drainages, is about 17,100 square miles (16 percent of Wyoming's surface area).
- Water managers in the seven-state Colorado River drainage must acknowledge an already over-appropriated river, growing demands, and the prospect of increasingly frequent and severe water shortages. Rising demand for Colorado River water is well documented. California routinely exceeds its 4.4 million acre-foot entitlement by 800,000 acre-feet annually. In Nevada, growth in the metropolitan Las Vegas area will push demands above Nevada's apportionment of 300,000 acre-feet per year within the next decade. In Arizona, the decline in Central Arizona Project deliveries experienced in the early 1990s has reversed. That state's use of its historically underutilized Colorado River entitlement will accelerate, impacting California's over-diversion.
- Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed a resolution, in which the Governor of Utah concurred, directing the Utah state water resources agencies and the Attorney General's Office to investigate the feasibility of leasing a portion of Utah's unused allocation of the Colorado River. Wyoming shares with Colorado and New Mexico opposition and deep concern about Utah's announced intention to pursue interstate and interbasin leasing of Colorado River water.
- Future Concerns: Wyoming's fundamental objective in the Colorado River Basin is to preserve the State's ability to develop its full Colorado River entitlement in anticipation of future development potential. Other basin states are faced with the reallocation of limited supplies between existing users and new demands. Wyoming continues to have compact-apportioned waters which can be developed to meet future beneficial consumptive uses in most major drainage basins. Other states are now addressing water accounting and data availability issues and are instituting measures that will allow water transfers, the continuation of present uses, and offer alternatives to meet future demands.
Agenda for March 26 Meeting in Pinedale:
Green River Basin Advisory Group
Meeting Agenda
March 26, 2008 - 6:00 pm
Lovatt Room, Sublette County Library
155 S. Tyler Street
Pinedale, WY
Agenda Items:
- Introduction
- Sign-in sheet
- Handouts in back of room
- Room introductions
- Description and purpose of meeting(s)
- Rotate throughout basin
- Educational, information sharing, development of strategies
- Website information -- www.waterplan.state.wy.us
- Agendas, minutes, reference notebook, general info, comment cards
- Distribute comment cards, general planning info sheet, issues/strategies sheet
- Explanation of comment cards, also available on web
- Attempt to give everyone an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas, issues, strategies
- Can be anonymous, or provide contact info if you would like to be contacted
- Basin planning Process (See website www.waterplan.state.wy.us)
- Framework plan
- Individual basin plans
- First Green River Basin Plan (2001)
- Data compilation, issues identification
- This Green River Basin Plan (2009)
- Update existing information
- New population and economic projections
- Improve hydrologic period of record
- Improve modeling
- Develop strategies
- Explanation of general info sheet
- Explanation of issues/strategies sheet
- Explain issues and strategies
- Issues are from previous plan
- Strategies that have been identified
- BAG and State agencies to provide new strategies
- Consultant update
- Project status
- Needs from the BAG
- Presentations
- Town of Pinedale: Gene Ninnie, Town Engineer
- Issues, Challenges, Strategies 15 minutes
- Discussion 15 minutes
- Trout Unlimited; Scott Yates, Director Trout Unlimited Wyoming Water Project
- Presentation 15 minutes
- Partnership opportunities for stream flow restoration and fish passage on private lands
- Highlights from TU-private landownership partnership projects in Wyoming and Idaho designed to meet ranch operational needs and reconnect important small tributary and main stem environments for native and wild trout
- Discussion 15 minutes
- Break 10 minutes
- Strategies discussion 30 minutes
- Pat Tyrrell, SEO; Update on Colorado River Basin Topics 60 minutes
- Conclusion
- 2-minute updates from local/State groups
- Next meetings:
- Lyman, May 28
- Kemmerer, June 25
- Turn in comment sheets / visit online comment sheet
- Visit website
- Adjourn
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