Transcript

Norm Semanko/ Jeff Fassett: The problem of not having enough water is not a new problem

Norm Semanko: You know, the problem of not having enough water is not a new problem. The Bureau of Reclamation was formed a hundred years ago to help build the great projects of the West so that we will have enough water for irrigation and all these other uses we are talking about now. I guess my question is, having heard some of these other examples, what are the prospects for additional storage in the West? What kinds of things are already going on in terms of raising existing dams to higher levels or building smaller scale projects off-stream?

Jeff Fassett: My first reaction is with Mr. Keys: the era of dam building is not over. Certainly, the projects that are under way in the state Wyoming are certainly on a much smaller scale than those of the major Bureau of Reclamation facilities that we saw maybe a hundred years ago. But, clearly, new development activity is occurring in our state. There are a couple of dams under construction now for both irrigated agriculture as well as for municipal use. But they are smaller. Some are off-stream as your question suggested. We have some that are on-stream that had to get through the process of meeting the needs of instream flow and the Endangered Species Act and the other requirements. What we are finding in our state is that there aren't too many people other than the State, quite honestly, that can afford to get through that process. But you can get through that process, and as the project is more targeted, more focused on the true needs then those projects can be accomplished. But you are not building the million-acre foot storage reservoirs as you once did because it is very difficult to deal with the processes and the laws to look that far into the future. But there is some new development occurring, I think, that is mixed in with transfers and marketing of water that we've talked about previously as well as the conjuctive use options.

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