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Little Snake River Basin (Overview) HUC# 140500Basin Geography:The Little Snake River drains the west slopes of the Sierra Madre in south central Wyoming. The mainstem Little Snake begins in Northern Colorado, flows west skirting the Wyoming/Colorado border, before returning to Colorado and joining the Yampa River and eventually the Green. Savery and Muddy Creeks are the main Wyoming tributaries that feed the Little Snake. Late summer flows in the Little Snake are not supplemented by reservoir storage and are often insufficient for local agricultural needs. The State of Wyoming has plans to build storage in the region to utilize Wyoming's allocations under Colorado River agreements. Threatened Colorado River cutthroat habitat is present in the basin. While this drainage is part of the Green River Basin it has special characteristics and is remote in southwestern Carbon County. The Wyoming State Engineer's Office administers this hydrologic unit with the Platte River Basin in Water Division I. Relevant Compacts and Decrees: The "Law of the River" for the Colorado River Basin is a combination of interstate compacts, court decrees, statues and international treaties. The 1922 Colorado River Compact established the upper and lower Colorado River sub-basins, of which Wyoming is part of the upper basin. A 1948 upper basin compact between Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming established Wyoming's share as 14% of the upper basin allocation. Actual water flows have been revised since 1922. Currently, Wyoming's annual share is 833,000 acre-ft, for use in the Little Snake and Green River Basins. This allocation is not fully used in the basins, resulting in approximately 455,000 acre-ft of water flowing out of Wyoming unappropriated. This is of great concern given that downstream states such as California and Nevada thirst for additional water supplies. The Little Snake River Basin is a high priority region in Wyoming water planning initiatives. Sources: US Geological Survey. 1984. National Water Summary-Wyoming: Groundwater Resources, Water Supply Paper 2275. pp. 457. Wyoming Water Development Commission & Wyoming State Engineer's Office. 1996. Wyoming Water Planning: A Report for Updating the Process. Cheyenne, WY. pp.17-20 Wyoming Water Development Commission. 1990. Wyoming Water Atlas. University of Wyoming, Laramie. pp. 68.
Index of the Statewide Data Inventory | |||||