Project would drain Fontenelle

A proposal from Gov. Matt Mead’s office would result in access to more water in the Fontenelle Reservoir, but requires the reservoir to be drained during construction.

Representatives from the state hosted a meeting Monday evening to discuss an upcoming study about the proposal.

The proposed project is one of many reservoir projects the state is interested in pursuing, all of which are part of the state’s water strategy, which was originally released in 2015.

The Fontenelle project would armor the lower portion of the reservoir with material, allowing for access to an additional 80,796 acre feet of water. While the reservoir can hold a total 345,360 acre-feet of water, only the upper portion of the reservoir is accessible, which is roughly 200,000 acre feet.

Continued drought has resulted in growing concern with lower basin states, Arizona, California and Nevada, as they could issue a compact call on upper basin states, which are Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

The call would result in upper basin states being forced to restrict their water usage to supply the lower basin states as they have the oldest claims on the water. Other water issues facing Wyoming, include interest in diverting water to northern Colorado and eastern Wyoming. At Fontenelle, Wyoming only has contracts on half the reservoir’s capacity. The state is looking into contracting the remaining portion of the reservoir independent of the proposed dam improvement, according to Clint Brown, project dam and reservoir engineer with Engineering Analytics Inc., the company contracted for the study.

The proposal is already being met with questions and concerns. Concerns about the proposal include impacts to trona companies using the water for their operations, as well as what draining the reservoir will do to the local fish populations. Another concern is the money needed to accomplish the work.

“The state’s obviously going to have a large cost at the of this,” Bryan Seppie, director of engineering and planning for the Joint Powers Water Board, said.

A $9 million cost estimate for the project has been made, and while other funding sources for the project could be used, the Wyoming Legislature would ultimately make a decision to fund the work.

The study, which is expected to be published October 2017, will analyze the costs and benefits of the project, as well as its potential impacts on local fisheries, wildlife and current users. The study will also include research regarding all of the documents and compacts involved in with water distribution and the reservoir. The project would involve cooperation amongst multiple agencies at both the state and federal level, including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Bureau of Reclamation.

“All those players will have to be involved,” Tony Rutherford, a project manager from the Wyoming Water Development Office, said.

Other meetings will take place later in the year, however those dates and locations have not been finalized.