Water Consumption and Conservation
The main water supply for Wyoming consists of four major river basins the Missouri-Mississippi, the Green-Colorado, the Snake-Columbia, and the Great Salt Lake. Wyoming is supplied with all of these supplies because of its placement on the Continental Divide. The Missouri-Mississippi results in 72 percent of Wyoming drain because of the Yellowstone, Wind, Bighorn, and Shoshone Rivers in the Northwestern part of the state. The Northeastern area is covered by the Tongue, Powder, Belle Fourche, Cheyenne, and Niobrara Rivers. While the Great Salt Lake provides only 2 percent of the water in Wyoming, the Green and Snake Rivers off of the Columbia River provides 17 percent of the supply.
Reservoir storage is crucial in maintaining available water for use throughout the summer by storing the snowmelt each year, which accounts for 70 percent of Wyoming’s entire water supply and allows for 1.9 million acre-feet of new water flowing into the state each year. All of these still waters along with waters within the natural streams, springs, and lakes that are within the state boundaries are the sole property of the state as declared by the Wyoming Constitution. However, Wyoming may only legally consume 6.4 million acre-feet annually because of various other laws such as interstate water rights which ensure that rivers and streams are not depleted by users upstream, but that people downstream will have water also (Wyoming’s Water Resources).
There isn’t much to say about groundwater. It is found throughout the state in alluvial aquifers and bedrock aquifers. Alluvial aquifers are estimated to contain 10 million acre-feet of water and bedrock aquifers are estimated to store around 3 billion acre-feet. The ability to extract water from these sources depends highly on the factors of cost of recovery and the rate at which the water can reenter these aquifers ( Wyoming’s Water Resources).
In the year 2003, legislature considered a bill known as HB 19, which was to allow temporary transfer of existing water rights for maximum use in the state. This means that cities and towns would be allowed to temporarily put a hold on water rights so that they could use the water for municipal uses. Most agricultural interest groups opposed this bill along with any change in Wyoming’s water rights for the fear that this would harm their interests and lead to more extreme changes in the future (Wyoming LAP book – 2004 Legislation).
Water usage can be thought of as either consumptive or non-consumptive. Consumptive water use refers to any water that is either evaporated, transpired, or incorporated into the growth of vegetables or other food products, the industrial and food processing, and the municipal water uses. Of these various consumptive water uses, irrigation for agriculture is by far the most demanding, accounting for 80 – 85 percent of the total consumptive water use in the entire state of Wyoming. Also, it is interesting to note that 73 percent of that irrigation water is used on alfalfa crops alone as compared to the mere 3 – 9 percent used for other crops such as corn, bean, wheat, or barley which use between 2 – 3 acre feet of water to produce one acre of a crop. (Wyoming’s Water Resources).
The other consumptive water uses in Wyoming – such as the municipal, domestic, industrial, and livestock – consume about 60,000 acre-feet of surface water and 1000,000 acre-feet of groundwater each year while 400,000 acre-feet of water is evaporated from reservoirs each year. The water that is being used is constantly flowing, so much of the water is returned to the streams and lakes as waste water, or non-consumptive water (Wyoming’s Water Resources). These non-consumptive waters are then used for such functions as recreation and fisheries.
Water transfer is another aspect of water usage that serves a very important purpose. With water transfer, water that is in its purest form is used first for drinking water for both humans and livestock. The water that is left over after that use is then designated to municipal purposes. The water is then used for laundry, cooking, steam engines, and general railway use and at the bottom of the list is water for industrial use. Because of this line of command for the water to go through, the consumer is getting high quality water for their specific purposes, and all water has a use for something even if it is not drinkable (Wyoming’s Water Resources)
Another aspect to take into account is that of the drought that has plagued the region for the last few years. Between Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming, 2002 was one of the driest years on record (Economist, 2002). As statistics show, the population in these areas are growing, the number of irrigated acres increasing, and overall water levels dropping (Economist, 2002).
The issue of water rights and usage clearly has many avenues that are deserving of discussion. Furthermore, as the western states continue to expand and grow in population, other measures will undoubtedly be needed to find a possible solution for the water problem. Perhaps people have finally begun to realize that now is the time to begin conserving water, instead of searching out new water, and continuing water overuse.
With today’s drought situations, it is more important than ever to be aware of the water sources in Wyoming as well as the various uses of the water and the amount of usable water that is available compared to the amount that must be used. This paper will not only inform about those uses and numbers, but also the highly debated HB 19 bill and the four major river basins in the western part of the country that supply Wyoming with it’s water. We will be talking about where and how Wyoming gets most of its surface water every year. Along with surface water, groundwater is also an important supply of water to the area which we count on for the environment, and it is important to try to conserve as much of this moisture as we can.
Compiled by Mike Manning, Karen VanDeburg, and Phil Cornella
Links
HB 19: Water temporary use: 2/2004 Wyoming Legsilature Budget Session
Wyoming Water Resources
Wyoming State Water Plan
Parks and Recreation Water Conservation Plans