Wyoming State Water Plan, Wyoming Water Development Office
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Bear River Basin Water Plan
Technical Memoranda

SUBJECT: Appendix F
Water Right Permits GIS Data

PREPARED BY: Erin Wilson and Heather Justus,
Leonard Rice Consulting Water Engineer, Inc.


INTRODUCTION

This memorandum discusses the development of the water right permits coverages for the Wyoming Water Development Commission’s Bear River Basin Project. Task objectives were to:

The coverages described in this memorandum are developed to assist in the estimation of overall consumptive use and general use location in the Bear River Basin, Wyoming.

APPROACH

To accomplish these objectives, irrigated lands were mapped, permit data were collected, and GIS coverages were constructed.

Irrigated Lands

States West Water Resources Corporation developed an irrigated lands GIS coverage for the Bear River Basin, Wyoming. Leonard Rice Consulting Water Engineers, Inc added a field to the GIS coverage called Irr_ID. This field enables the user to link the associated permit coverages to the irrigated lands.

For more information on the irrigated lands GIS coverage, please refer to Technical Memorandum titled “Bear River Basin Plan, Irrigated Lands GIS Data”, O'Grady, M.; Carr, F.; and Meena, J; July14, 2000.

Water Rights Database Development

Upon completion of irrigated lands mapping, Mr. Frank Carr assigned water rights attributes to each identified irrigated polygon. To assist the reader, Mr. Carr has provided a brief description of water rights terminology specific to Wyoming’s water law policy and procedure in Appendix A of the ”Irrigated Lands GIS Data” memo.

The water rights permitted to serve some or all of the land within each individual irrigated polygon in the irrigated lands theme were extracted from the original records on file at the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office and State Board of Control located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Note that this is not intended to represent all water rights in the basin, only water rights associated with acreage defined as irrigated in 1998. The water right database fields include the irrigated parcel identifier, permit number, source, ditch or well name, priority date, amount of appropriation (cfs or gpm), number of acres, type of supply (original, additional, supplemental, secondary), and status (adjudicated, unadjudicated, expired, and canceled).

Water Right Permits Coverage

An ArcView point coverage was developed that represents the surface, well, and reservoir water permits in the water rights database as a point in the respective irrigated polygon, general well location, or reservoir location. Most of the irrigated polygons have several associated permits. In addition, many of the permits are assoicated with more than one irrigated polygon. This relationship is termed "many-to-many". The water right permits coverage is a stand-alone theme that can be linked through the Irr_id, and the Source & Facility (Source_f) fields. The Irr_id field links the coverage to the irrigated lands coverage. When linked, an ArcView query of a particular water right will identify irrigated polygons served by that water right. Also, a query of a particular irrigated polygon will identify water rights associated with the acreage. The Source & Facility (Source_f) links the coverage to the point of diversion coverage as discussed below.

In addition to the values as shown on the actual permits, the water right permits coverage also contains link fields for programmer use. The water right permits coverage attribute table includes the following fields:

Points of Diversion Coverage

In order to determine actual locations where permits divert from their source, the points of diversion for the permits in the water rights database were mapped and used to create a GIS coverage. This coverage contains one point for each diversion headgate. To obtain the permit data associated with the points of diversion, the water right permits coverage and the points of diversion coverage are linked with the Source & Facility field (Source_f). An Arcview query of the interested Source & Facility in the water right permits coverage table will obtain all permit data associated with a point of diversion. The final coverage, shown in Figure 1, contains the following fields:


click to enlarge

Water Well Permit Coverage

An ArcView point coverage was developed that represents well permits in the water rights database. The location of wells was estimated from the quarter-quarter description on the permit unless more precise location information was available. Ground water wells permitted for irrigation that have a capacity over 50 gpm are included in the database. Wells permitted for miscellaneous, industrial, or municipal use were also included. The 50 gpm cutoff for irrigation wells essentially excluded domestic use wells. Table 1 summarizes the well permits information for the basin.

TABLE 1: Wells in Well Permit Coverage
Permitted Use Number of Wells Total Permitted Rate (gpm)
Miscellaneous 22 1,870
Commercial 2 240
Domestic 1 130
Industrial 4 661
Industrial-Domestic 1 60
Industrial - Miscellaneous 2 304
Irrigation 44 37,984
Irrigation -Stock-Domestic 1 500
Municipal 6 3,250
Stock - Domestic - Irrigation 3 300
Stock - Irrigation 1 200
Sources: Wyoming State Engineer’s Office, Original water rights records for surface and ground water permits.

The database fields include the permit information described above in the water rights permit coverage. The well permit coverage can be linked through the Irr_id field so that ArcView queries between irrigated polygons and wells can be easily made.

Reservoir Permit Coverage

An ArcView point coverage was developed to depict the reservoir permitted rights in the water right database. The coverage depicts the reservoir permits as points in the general location of each reservoir. The database fields include the permit information as stated above in the water rights permit coverage. Table 2 list the reservoir water right permits in the Bear River Basin, Wyoming

TABLE 2
RESERVOIR WATER RIGHT PERMITS
Permit # Source Facility Name Priority Amount
AF
Status USE
5513 Res. Gooseberry Creek Thoman Reservoir 19430316 98.08 adj. irr-stk
6556 Res. (W) Bear River Woodruff Narrows Res. 19590803 28,100.00 adj. irr-ind-fish
6556 Res. (U) Bear River Woodruff Narrows Res 19590803 0.00 adj. n/a
8060 Res. Bear River Woodruff Narrows Res 19750725 24,677.00 adj. irr.
8061 Res. Bear River Woodruff Narrows Res 19790806 4,523.00 adj. irr.
5695 Res. Sulphur Creek Sulphur Creek Reservoir 19500214 1,404.13 adj. irr
6481 Res. Sulphur Creek Sulphur Creek Reservoir 19580812 510.41 adj. irr
6562 Res. Sulphur Creek Sulphur Creek Reservoir 19581001 1,528.85 adj. irr
9222 Res. Sulphur Creek Sulphur Creek Reservoir 19820808 13,631.00 adj. irr-mun-fish
6884 Res. Mill Creek Massea Reservoir 19600119 107.50 adj. irr-s-d
6434 Res. Bazoo Hallow Martin Reservoir 19580529 87.90 adj. irr
896 Res. Willow Creek Heber Reservoir 19060821 388.50 adj. irr-dom
4057 Res. Pleasant Valley Creek Crompton Reservoir 19280120 90.83 adj. irr-s-d
4616 Res. Pleasant Valley Creek Crompton Reservoir 19341113 74.96 adj. irr-s-d
5515 Res. Pleasant Valley Creek Painter Reservoir 19431207 167.61 adj. irr
6117 Res. Pleasant Valley Creek Crompton Reservoir 19540205 406.25 adj. irr
5270 Res. Pleasant Valley Creek Crompton Reservoir 19400425 208.68 adj. irr
5064 Res. Mill Creek Myers Reservoir 19390328 556.50 adj. irr
10278 Res. Van Tassel Creek Ben Reservoir 19950407 300.29 un-adj irr
10657 Res. Van Tassel Creek Ben Reservoir 19971208 2.86 un-adj irr
Sources: Wyoming State Engineer’s Office, Original water rights records for surface and ground water permits.

Key to Abbreviated Words in TABLE 2
Abbreviation Word Abbreviation Word
Res. reservoir stk stock
(W) Wyoming ind industrial
(U) Utah n/a not applicable
Adj. adjudicated mun municipal
Un-adj. un-adjudicated d domestic
irr irrigated s stock

Results

Using the GIS coverages, some statistics were generated to show the overall characteristics of the basin. Figure 2 shows the active irrigated acreage in 1998 by division. The Upper Division contains 40,000 acres and the Central Division contains 23,300 acres.

Figure 2 shows the water right permits by division for active irrigated acreage. The Upper Division has 319 active permits and the Central Division has 239 active permits. Note that this may not represent all water rights in the basin, only water rights associated with acreage defined as irrigated in 1998.

Figure 3 shows the 1998 active points of diversion by division. The Upper Division contains 156 and the Central Division contains 83 mapped points of diversion. Additional points of diversion may exist.

Figure 2:

Figure 3: Figure 4:

COMMENTS AND CONCERNS

The water rights attribution process did not attempt to define all water rights in the basin nor determine a specific correspondence to the irrigated lands permitted by the water right. The coverages developed based on the irrigated acreage and water rights attributions should not be used to determine water right compliance, but are appropriate for the use intended in this study.

Sources:

Carr, Frank. Water Rights Attribution and Mapping, maps and spreadsheets, 1999.

O’Grady, M.; Carr, F.; and Meena, J. Bear River Basin Plan, Irrigated Lands GIS Data, July 14, 2000.

Wyoming State Engineer’s Office, Original water right records for surface and ground water permits.