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Green River and Little Snake River Basins
Current Issues:
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.
Growth in water demands is not limited to the Lower Basin. While the Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) uses only 3.8 million acre-feet annually of its apportioned Colorado River water supply, the steady growth in Upper Basin economies is projected to increase use in the Upper Basin by 700,000 acre-feet per year by 2020 and by 1.5 million acre-feet per year by 2050.
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.
In addition to competition among basin states for limited water supplies, the Federal Government has imposed regulatory restraints and requirements that are equivalent to increased consumptive demands.
Implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) must be factored into water management and development projections and decisions. Wyoming participates in the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that water diverted upstream of habitats occupied by these fish species causes impacts equivalent to water diversions within that habitat. Thus, water projects in Wyoming face the same ESA constraints as those downstream. Given the current ESA provisions, the Recovery Program must continue to provide alternatives that offset the impacts of additional water development so that water management and development planning in this Basin can proceed. While Wyoming's compact apportionment is allocated to the State in perpetuity and is established in federal law, administration of the ESA must be addressed in the water planning process
The Wyoming water planning process must continue to advocate State water law and state authority in determining water needs, establishing water efficiency, and development within the public interest. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act has heightened federal involvement in defining the "purpose and need" of proposed water projects. The Corps of Engineers recently denied a Wyoming application for a 404 permit because there was no identified use for 20,000 acre-feet of the project's 32,000 acre-feet of yield. In his 1990 letter, the Corps? District Engineer stated:
"The need for the proposed project has not been demonstrated, and I now have a clear policy on implementing the 404(b)(1) Guidelines for this type of speculative project. I believe that it is in the interest both of good government and all parties involved that action now be taken on this application (denial)."
This water planning process will provide the State with a valuable tool for addressing project purpose and need requirements. The plans, and the public development process required to prepare them, will position the State to support evaluation of those needs during the Federal permitting process. By assuming additional responsibility for project planning and assessment from a statewide perspective, Wyoming should be able to establish "purposes and needs" to the satisfaction of Federal permitting agencies.
The planning process should also provide a means to facilitate and improve coordination among State agencies with differing missions and objectives relative to water resource management. By identifying basin issues prior to specific project proposals and by having a solid foundation of facts and analysis addressing future water demands in the water plan, State agencies will be able resolve differences and not depend on the federal permitting process to arbitrate disputes.
Management of the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout and conservation of aquatic habitats by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is an agency priority in order to avoid listing of the species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. There is growing demand in this and all other river basins in Wyoming for angling, boating, tourism and other types of water- or riparian-based recreation. The economic value of this non-consumptive use must continue to be a consideration in water policy, planning, and project evaluation.
Compact Allocations:
The "Law of the River" for the Colorado River has evolved from interstate compacts, federal and state statutes, contracts with the U.S., court decrees and decisions, an international treaty with Mexico and subsequent amendments, operating criteria and administrative decisions. The basic intent of the "Law of the River" is to divide the available water equitably among the Basin States, encourage beneficial consumptive use of the water, and protect the States' water entitlements against adverse use.
The Colorado River Compact of 1922 divides the Basin into two subbasins at Lee Ferry. The Upper Basin is those parts of the States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming from which the natural drainage is above Lee Ferry, while the Lower Basin is those parts of the States of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah with natural drainage below Lee Ferry. Under the Compact, any part of these states which use Colorado River system waters is declared to be a part of that Basin from which the water is diverted. The Compact apportions in perpetuity to each Basin the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre-feet annually from the Colorado River System. In addition, the Lower Basin is granted the right to increase its beneficial consumptive use by 1,000,000 acre-feet annually from such waters.
On October 11, 1948, the Upper Basin States entered into a Compact which followed the format and was subject to the provisions of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. Arizona was included in the negotiations on account of having a small percentage of the Upper Basin drainage area. The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact apportioned the water allocated to the Upper Basin by the 1922 Compact as follows:
A. 50,000 acre-feet to Arizona
B. And of the remainder, 50.75 percent to Colorado
11.25 percent to New Mexico
23.00 percent to Utah
14.00 percent to Wyoming
Under the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact's percentage apportionments, Wyoming is entitled to consumptively use 1,043,000 acre-feet per year. This amount of development is permissible if an average Upper Basin water supply of 7.5 million acre-feet can be made available by some means. The hydrology of the Colorado River is extremely variable. With the exception of the 1906-1930 period, the total available supply has been less than the total of the Upper and Lower Basin apportionments. For these reasons, the dependable annual supply available to the Upper Basin is less than 7.5 million acre-feet.
One specific Compact allocation issue that could be addressed in the water planning process arises from the 1948 Compact's provision that apportions to Wyoming 50 percent of the waters of the Henry's Fork and its tributaries used under rights initiated after the signing of the Compact. The recommended planning program could undertake a quantification of those uses in furtherance of administration of the Compact.
In the process of water planning, consideration must be given to water quality. Every water use has certain water quality requirements. If water quality is allowed to deteriorate below the requirement of any use, then this use is lost to the State within that area. Of all of the chemical parameters, the total dissolved solids (TDS) or salinity is probably the most important as it has a direct effect on all uses. Generally the chemical quality of the Green River is very good in Wyoming (the average annual TDS for the Green River near Green River, Wyoming for the period 1941 through 1993 is 311 mg/L) and the water is suitable for all uses.
Because the Colorado River is over-appropriated, and the water is used and reused numerous times as it flows downstream, the detrimental economic impact of salinity concentrations (as measured by TDS) in the Lower Colorado River Basin are highly significant. Wyoming contributes salt load to the River and is a member of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum. The State must continue to participate in efforts to control salinity concentrations to prevent both conflicts with down-stream states and further limiting actions by the Federal Government to maintain water quality standards for salinity in the Colorado River Basin.
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.
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