WSP12055 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

',' 001890 . . Summary of Complaint A. Parties:, THREE FORKS RANCH CORPORATION v, THE CITY OF CHEYENNE, WYOMING, and its BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES, PATRlCK T, TYRRELL in his capacity as THE WYOMING ST ATE ENGINEER, and the WYOMING WATER DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, B. Underlying Facts: The Cheyenne Exchange Project. 1. The Cheyenne Exchange Project is a water supply project that has two primary components, The first is a system of direct flow diversions and conveyance structures in the Little Snake River Basin that send water through a tunnel under the Continental Divide and into Hog Park Reservoir in the North Platte drainage. The second is a system of direct flow diversions, storage and conveyance structures on the east side of the North Platte River Basin in Douglas Creek that collect water and send it by pipeline east to Cheyenne, 2, Under current operations, the Exchange Project diverts on average approximately 17,500 acre-feet of water out of the Little Snake River Basin. Actual water use by the City of Cheyenne, however, is at most 4,300 acre-feet, or less than 25% of the amount of water diverted out of the Little Snake Basin, The difference between what is taken out of the Little Snake and what is actually used by Cheyenne is approximately 13,200 acre-feet. }, The 13,200 acre-foot excess diversion out of the Little Snake is used in ways that are not authorized by the water rights for the Project. Among other unauthorized uses, this water is used to maintain recreational lake levels in Rob Roy Reservoir and Hog Park Reservoir and to account for evaporation from these facilities, It is also used for instream flow purposes in Hog Park Creek and other creeks, and to maintain an "advanced payback" account in Seminoe Reservoir pursuant to a temporary storage contract with the United States Bureau of Reclamation, A portion of the excess diversion that is put into Seminoe Reservoir exceeds the capacity of Cheyenne's "advanced payback" account in that facility and is used by North Platte water users below Seminoe Reservoir on the North Platte, 4, Two stages of the Exchange Project have been built. A Stage III that would take even more water out of basin is proposed, but has not yet been constructed, 5, The foregoing facts result in violations of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact and Wyoming State laws detailed in sections C and D below, PhO.OJ