Candidate for Governor Discusses Wyoming Water and Other Issues with Community

Candidate for Governor Discusses Wyoming Water and Other Issues with Community

Harriet Hageman

GREEN RIVER—Republican candidate for Wyoming governor Harriet Hageman visited a meeting hosted by Communities Protecting the Green River on Wednesday, May 9 to discuss Wyoming water issues.

Hageman is one of seven candidates for governor. Others include Republicans Bill Dahlin, Foster Freiss, Sam Galeotos, Mark Gordon, Taylor Haynes, Rex Rammell, and Democrat Mary Throne.

The Colorado River Compact

Hageman is a water and natural resource lawyer out of Cheyenne, and has worked closely with the state on the feasibility and legalities of the Colorado River Compact.

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In September of 2017, Hageman wrote a memorandum on the prospect of diverting Green River water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir to lower basin states and the front range of Colorado.

Hageman said she first started working on this project in 2009 and 2010. She explained that Wyoming and Colorado are the only two states in the Colorado River Compact that still has entitlements to the water.

Wyoming is entitled to 14% of the water in the compact.

Hageman has been involved in many discussions about building a pipeline to divert water from the Flaming Gorge to Colorado. She said most people know about this project through Aaron Million, who wanted to divert Green River water to Colorado, but wanted to maintain ownership of the water rights.

Hageman explained that she believes water for municipality use should not be owned by private water owners.

She explained that the state’s ideas for the project differ from Million’s ideas in many ways, but one of the major ways they differ is that Million wanted to take the water straight from the river. This was because he could not get federal agencies to cooperate with him.

Hageman said discussions she was involved in discussed taking the water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, as to minimize the fluctuations in the reservoir in dry years.

She said Wyoming understands the importance of recreation in the state and the importance of the reservoir elevations to protect recreation.

Understanding the Hydrology of the Flaming Gorge

She said there have been no decisions made on this project, but she emphasized that there will no chances of success without a really good idea of the hydrology.

Therefore, a 47-year analysis was performed, which considered 500 different hydrological scenarios, to figure out the average impact the project would have on water elevations in the reservoir.

The study found that the average impact on the elevations in the reservoir would be 1.3 feet, and the maximum impact would be 8 feet.

She explained that on average, the reservoir already sees a minimum of 11 feet and a maximum of 27 feet in elevation fluctuations. These depend on overflows and releases.

She said there is a misconception that Colorado is stealing Wyoming’s water, but the reality is that Colorado is entitled to their portion of the water. However, she said in order to do the project, Wyoming needs to work as a whole.

“Wyoming is not like Colorado,” Hageman said. “We talk holistically.”

She added that the Eastern and Western parts of the state both need to be involved in the project.

“There would be no project unless it’s a statewide project,” she said.

East Versus West

However, Commissioner John Kolb said that it is an issue of the East versus the West. He said Southwest Wyoming is the “givers” and Cheyenne is the “takers”. He added that people in Southwest Wyoming see the Flaming Gorge as “our future”.

He expressed his concern that once the water starts to be diverted, it is very difficult to stop that no matter what the water situation in the gorge is. He said that he and several concerned residents see the project as pulling a resource out of the area and the area’s future.

Kolb also questioned what benefits the project would have on Sweetwater County and Southwest Wyoming.

Hageman said that Wyoming is entitled to 14% of the water, and she will fight for Wyoming’s right to this water. However, she pointed out that Colorado is entitled to their share as well. She also added that since Colorado would be at the tail-end of the pipeline, they would end up funding the majority of the project.

In response to what’s in it for Southwest Wyoming, she said that it is not her role to figure this out but is rather the community’s role. She added that she is not an advocate for the project as Harriet Hageman nor as governor, but instead believes the state should look at the feasibility of it.

Wyoming’s Obligation

She explained that her position on the project, as well as the State Engineers Office’s position, is that it is not Wyoming’s obligation to transfer the water. Wyoming’s only obligated to not deplete Colorado’s entitlement.

Hageman did come out against supplying California with water. She explained that California has had the same water structure since the 1960s, and they failed to provide water resources to their people. She said the water is not coming out of Wyoming because of their failure.

“We have to protect Wyoming’s water,” she said.

She said Wyoming needs to continue to make long-term plans that continuously look at water demands and how to meet them. She said Wyoming has the people and resources to make these long-term plans.

Federal Land Management and Access

The discussion of water led to a discussion of access and control over federal land. She explained that the pine beetle outbreak was caused by federal land management bureaucrats, as they did not properly management the first outbreak in the 1960s.

She said that the pine beetles have now decimated the canopies created by the tree branches. These canopies protect snow packs in the mountains, which is where Wyoming’s water comes from.

Without the canopies, the snow is melting faster and is directly affecting the hydrology in the river basins.

She therefore believes that management of the lands should be done at a local level.

She said that there are many groups that will fight to keep land management at a federal level, while others want to take the lands through “almost any means necessary” she said.

Hageman wants to find a middle ground between the two extremes. She suggests identifying approximately 1,000,000 acres within the state for alternative management and treatment. The state would be in control of this land and would be entitled to all of the revenue generated from these lands.

Commissioner Randy Wendling asked how to keep the land in the state’s control rather than selling it for private ownership.

Hageman said there would need to be an entirely separate statutory structure set up to put parameters on how the land is managed.

Diversifying the Economy

Hageman also discussed Wyoming’s economy and how the state needs to embrace, support, defend, protect, and advocate for the legacy industries, which are minerals, agriculture, and tourism. She sees these industries as the “foundation of what Wyoming is”.

She said that 70% of the revenue generated for the state of Wyoming is the minerals industry.

“We can talk about diversifying our economy until the cows come home. It’s not going to change the fact that that’s where the revenue comes into the state of Wyoming,” she said.