The annual Irrigation System Survey Report, which is published by the Wyoming Water Development Commission, provides a summary of information regarding 28 irrigation districts. These districts lie within a portion of what the Wyoming State Engineer's Office designates as Water Division I. Information regarding the irrigation districts within the Horse Creek subbasin as listed in the 2003 Irrigation System Survey Report is represented in the following table.

Irrigation Districts	Surface source	Acres in district (total)	District acres irrigated	Number of users
Horse Creek Conservation District	Hawk Springs Reservoir	-	-	-
Goshen Irrigation District	North Platte River	52,484	52,484	340

Goshen Irrigation District

The largest North Platte River Basin irrigation districts are those that are under contract to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and that receive irrigation water via the system of ôfederal reservoirsö located on the North Platte River in Wyoming and federal programs. Seven of the large USBR-administered irrigation districts are located downstream of the Whalen Diversion Dam, which is located on the North Platte River in Goshen County between the Towns of Guernsey and Fort Laramie. Six of these seven large irrigation districts are located in Nebraska and one is located in Wyoming. The single large Wyoming irrigation district located downstream of Whalen Diversion Dam is the Goshen Irrigation District. A map of the Goshen Irrigation District is shown below.

The Goshen Irrigation District receives irrigation water as a result of a 1926 Federal North Platte Project contract. The district diverts North Platte River Water via the Fort Laramie Canal at the Whalen Diversion Dam, which conveys the water to district irrigators whose lands are located south of the North Platte River in Wyoming.

In addition to its rights to North Platte River water under the North Platte Project, the Goshen Irrigation District has the right to pump water from the Laramie River to supplement available North Platte River water up to the Wyoming statutory limit of 1 cubic foot per second (cfs) of irrigation water per 70 acres of irrigated land. The Goshen Irrigation District may utilize irrigation water from the Laramie River when the quantity of available North Platte River water is insufficient to meet district irrigation water demand. The Wyoming Supreme Court has quantified this supplemental right to use Laramie River water at 25 cfs. Below is a map showing the Goshen Irrigation District. Click here to enlarge image, view legend, and to print.