State Engineer to Hold Hearing on Laramie County Water

The Wyoming State Engineer Pat Tyrrell will hold a public hearing to determine whether groundwater in the area is adequate for the needs of all appropriators within the Laramie County Control Area.

The hearing will be held on April 10, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., at the Wyoming Department of Transportation Auditorium at the Headquarters Building on Bischop Boulevard in Cheyenne. The hearing will be open to the public and all interested parties are encouraged to attend. Submittal of written comments is also encouraged.

The Wyoming State Engineer will leave the record open for 30 days after the public hearing to allow for written comment, or until 5:00 p.m. on May 12, 2014.

According to a news release, if the Wyoming State Engineer finds after the hearing, and after receiving the advice of the control area advisory board, that groundwater in the control area is insufficient for all appropriators, he may by order adopt one or more of the corrective controls identified in Wyoming Statute.

Responding to mounting concerns over increasing development and use of groundwater resources in southeast Wyoming, Tyrrell issued a Temporary Order Adopting Well Spacing Requirements within the Laramie County Control Area on April 11, 2012.

The Temporary Order was initially scheduled to remain in effect until October 1, 2013. It was extended through March 31, 2014 to allow time to finish the hydrogeologic analysis to prepare options for presentation to the Laramie County Control Area for preserving and/or extending the groundwater resources of the area.

The State Engineer has extended the temporary order through June 30, 2014.

The final report, Hydrogeologic Study of the Laramie County Control Area, presents the results of that study and will be available on the State Engineer’s Office website after March 26, 2014.