BOARD02469

• Board Meeting Date: 7/18/2005
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

move water across the Continental Divide, from the Green River to the North Platte
River. Such a project could aid growth in Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie while
protecting irrigators' water rights, commission Director Mike Besson said. But
opposition has already arisen among environmentalists and southwest Wyoming
residents, and the estimated costs range into the hundreds of millions.

The current proposal calls for a 54-inch steel pipeline that would carry 50,000 acre-feet
of water a year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre 1 foot deep;
50,000 acre-feet would supply an estimated 200,000 people, or about 40 percent of
Wyoming's population.

Wyoming has rights to 833,000 acre-feet in the Green River. But commission Director
Besson said 221,300 acre-feet goes unclaimed. Besson said he launched the study after
learning of a proposal in Utah to pipe water from southwestern Wyoming's Fontenelle
Reservoir to the Wasatch Front. He contends that the water would be better used to
bolster the North Platte River.

The commission examined six possible pipeline routes ranging in cost from $283 million
to $752 million. The least expensive route would be from Fontenelle Reservoir to the
Sweetwater River, which empties into Pathfinder Reservoir from the west. The most
expensive would be to link Flaming Gorge Reservoir with Seminoe Reservoir. .But
Besson said the most politically feasible routes would pipe water from the Flaming Gorge
area. That would put the pipeline downstream of Wyoming irrigators and towns.

The diverted water would probably cost $140-$200 per acre-foot. Besson said industries
and municipalities might be able to afford that, but not irrigators.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal opposes the project. Other opponents include Janet Hartford,
executive director of the Green River Chamber of Commerce, who said her area depends
on the river for tourism, agriculture and business.

Reclamation Notes San Juan River Benefits Lake Powell, But Drought Effects Are
Long-Term: On June 16, two Reclamation officials said that Colorado's strong spring
runoff, which caused Farmington's Animas, La Plata and San Juan rivers to swell in late
May, has benefited drought-stricken Lake Powell. They warned, however, that it would
take a lot more than one wet year to reverse the effects of the drought on Lake Powell.

The Animas and La Plata feed into the San Juan River on the south side of Farmington.
The San Juan River then snakes its way through the Four Corners, into Utah and
eventually into Lake Powell, which straddles the Arizona-Utah state line.

The overall strong spring runoff - including from the San Juan and Colorado rivers -
should deposit 3 million acre-feet of water into Lake Powell this year, raising the lake
level by 50 to 55 feet. The lake would still need an additional 12 million acre-feet of
water - or another 90 to 100 feet to be at full pool, according to Reclamation.

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