Right now, Albany County and the City of Laramie are working together to update their plan for safeguarding the Casper Aquifer. This aquifer supplies slightly more than half of the drinking water for Laramie’s 31,000 residents, as well as all drinking water for nearby residents in rural Albany County.
The good news is that the consulting firm hired to update the aquifer protection plan has identified a number of new protections for drinking water that the Wyoming Outdoor Council supports. We’re preparing to submit our own, detailed comments, but if you’re a resident of the area I encourage you to send a brief message encouraging the city and county to adopt the recommendations for the Draft Aquifer Protection Plan.
The Casper Aquifer Protection Area encompasses about 72 square miles that lie east of the City of Laramie, and is specially managed to prevent groundwater contamination. The Outdoor Council supports all the recommendations in the draft update, particularly that the city and county should:
— Prohibit livestock feedlots and commercial turf, such as golf courses, within the protection area. Both can contribute to groundwater pollution through runoff from nitrogen fertilizer and animal waste.
— Require consultation with a geologist or engineer prior to new development to identify geologic features like faults or springs that could serve as a conduit from the surface to the aquifer, confirm if development is appropriate in that location, and determine what protections might be required to do so responsibly.
— Add new strategies for managing possible contaminants — especially requirements for septic system inspections and maintenance, and expanding the network of monitoring wells to help detect pollutants before they contaminate drinking water sources.
The public scoping comment period closes at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, so please send your comments today. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me or visit the county’s website. We’ll keep you updated as the planning process proceeds, and let you know how and when you can get involved.
Advocating for conservation in Wyoming is demanding work, both for the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s staff and for passionate members like you. Not only are there more issues than we can possibly address as a small organization in a geographically large state, but for people with big hearts and a love for the wild, open spaces of Wyoming, the outcomes are personal.
We don’t always win. When we do find success, as frequent as it may be, it’s often in the form of a quiet victory or incremental change. The forces working against us — whether it’s government inertia or downright hostile opposition from other stakeholders — can often feel overwhelming.
But we aren’t in this alone. After all, we have each other.
Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of our fellow Wyomingites — even if they don’t consider themselves “conservationists” — value public lands, wide open spaces, wildlife, clean air, and clean water. Our challenge is to meet people where they are and attempt to find common ground. The more we make these connections, value multiple perspectives, and seek input from a diversity of people outside of our organization in Wyoming and beyond, the more likely we are to succeed in our mission.
However difficult it may be, an honest and respectful conversation with a person who disagrees with our position does more good than assuming we have all the answers.
Everything we hope to accomplish depends on relationships. Wyoming is a state where a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can seek creative solutions to tough problems and make a difference. And, as you’ll read in the coming pages, positive things can happen when a group of people with diverse perspectives put their heads together around an issue of mutual concern instead of staying in their own camps.
Everything we hope to accomplish depends on relationships. Wyoming is a state where a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can seek creative solutions to tough problems and make a difference.
Thank you for being part of the Outdoor Council community in 2022. I take comfort in knowing, despite the obstacles and the slow pace of change, we’re all in this together. I hope you’ll remember that as well.
Like the rest of the landscape, water in Wyoming is dramatic. Rivers carve through canyons, geysers erupt from below ground, reservoirs emerge from arid shrublands, and idyllic trout streams meander down from the mountains. And with water for agriculture and industry in limited supply, any conversation about water management is likely to turn heated.
Clean water is vital to our health, economy, and quality of life in Wyoming — and to the fish, wildlife, and plant life that surrounds us. Protecting clean water is a core part of the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s mission. But with a few notable exceptions, it’s a quiet undertaking: Much of this work happens behind a desk or on the phone, pouring over technical documents to identify threats to water from industrial development or shifting regulations.
The nitty gritty work of an advocacy group like the Outdoor Council is watchdogging government actions at the state level. This can involve reviewing proposed rule changes within the Department of Environmental Quality or actions by the legislature. Or we may focus on more discrete topics, like permits to allow companies to inject polluted water underground or to dispose of pollutants into bodies of water on the surface. Oftentimes, opportunities to review and comment on proposed actions escape the attention of citizens and other advocacy groups who can’t dedicate a full-time staff member to water quality. Fortunately, the Outdoor Council can serve this role. And we often work with partner groups around the state to divide and conquer, ensuring these issues have the attention they deserve.
Reading public notices for draft wastewater discharge permits, proposed state agency rule changes, or legislative bill drafts is not what most folks consider exciting. Still, it’s essential: Sifting through these dense and technical documents is the front line of protection for clean water. Eventually we may show up at public meetings to ask tough questions. But if and when we decide to provide comments to regulators and decision makers on an issue and encourage citizens to do the same, we’ve done the legwork to identify and understand the problem and any possible solutions.
The ability to engage with agency staff and lawmakers, and to access the draft permits and regulations as well as the underlying data, is critical. Transparency keeps government accountable to the public and gives everyday citizens the ability to take action.
The Outdoor Council is working on some important water issues right now — like oilfield wastewater that’s flowing to Boysen Reservoir and could potentially be injected into the Madison Aquifer, and septic system rules and water quality planning in Teton County — but they weren’t dropped in our lap. We have to dig deep to uncover problems, bring them to the public’s attention, get agencies or decision makers to take a harder look or change their approach. It’s this work that often — but not always — yields positive outcomes.
We’re a small staff with a broad mission, and we can’t read every permit — much less conduct an in-depth review. But we’ve found success in focusing on geographic areas that are particularly sensitive or vulnerable to pollution, and on specific issues we’ve worked with communities on in the past. The quiet work of watchdogging water helps Wyoming citizens make their voices heard, loud and clear.
In a disappointing move, the Teton District Board of Health declined to adopt a proposed rule that would alert residents when increasing levels of harmful nitrates are detected in drinking water. The rule, drafted by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Protect Our Water Jackson Hole, would have required the county health department to notify the public when elevated levels of nitrates are detected in any of the county’s 114 public water systems and investigate the source of the pollution.
While this is an unfortunate delay, the residents of Teton County have made it clear that clean, safe drinking water should be a priority in their community. Together with our partners, the Outdoor Council will continue working with county officials to enact this important safeguard.
OIL AND GAS LEASING
In late January, the Biden administration announced an executive order pausing new oil and gas leasing on public lands so the Department of the Interior can conduct a “rigorous review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands and waters.”
The oil and gas industry is an important part of Wyoming’s economy and, when done properly, development has a place on our public lands. However, the federal leasing program is decades out of date. We’ll continue to push for common-sense leasing reforms that will place the many other uses and values of our public lands (like wildlife habitat, historic cultural sites, and outdoor recreation) on equal footing with development, while also ensuring a fair return for taxpayers. Importantly, we want to see an end to noncompetitive “over-the-counter” leases as well as leasing of lands with low potential for producing oil and gas.
A change in federal administrations — and the policies that follow — is cause for either excitement or anxiety depending on how you voted. And for good reason: Elections have consequences. National policies affect our health, our economy, and our environment. And in Wyoming, where nearly half of the land is managed by the federal government, national policies have a disproportionate impact.
Members of the Wyoming Outdoor Council fall all along the political spectrum. We agree to disagree on many issues, but find common ground when it comes to conservation. Conservation is not — and should not be — a partisan issue.
From the standpoint of conservation and environmental justice, the legacy of the outgoing administration is dire. From climate change denial and the loosening of air and water quality safeguards to oil and gas leasing in areas important to Indigenous people and in crucial wildlife habitats, there have been more than 100 documented rollbacks to existing protections or short-sighted policies that threaten public health and our air, water, wildlife, and lands.
Many of the administrative wins we celebrated over the last decade were among those rolled back. The fate of others — like the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule — remains uncertain as challenges are still working their way through the courts. And while there are some rules that the incoming administration will be able to restore and it will certainly abandon some public land policies like “energy dominance,” we’ve lost important ground.
To be sure, the Outdoor Council looks forward to an incoming administration that is less hostile to our mission. At the same time, we are wary of ambitious campaign goals that don’t take Wyoming values into account. For example, in the urgency to transition away from fossil fuels, proposals for industrial-scale wind and solar development on public lands in Wyoming shouldn’t be rushed. Development should be encouraged in already disturbed areas so that, in our effort to mitigate climate impacts, we don’t harm intact habitat and our most cherished open spaces and public lands.
And we’ll be careful not to rely too heavily on federal policy for solutions to the specific challenges we face in Wyoming. We don’t relish what has come to feel like a game of administrative ping-pong.
Instead, what we strive for — regardless of who occupies the White House — are common-sense conservation initiatives and environmental policies that endure. Although incremental progress isn’t as newsworthy as sweeping change, we’re playing a long game. We’d much rather build on measured steps forward than have fleeting successes that can’t withstand the next election.
What we strive for — regardless of who occupies the White House — are common-sense conservation initiatives and environmental policies that endure.
Assuming they work as promised, we support state-level initiatives. Past examples include rules for detecting and fixing methane leaks in new and modified oil and gas fields and requiring baseline water testing before oil and gas drilling. We’ve also supported executive orders for sage-grouse conservation and big game migration corridors, although we continue to scrutinize their implementation.
And when we advocate for big policy solutions with the power to deliver conservation wins, we also champion strong public processes. We’re dedicated to empowering citizens in local communities to help craft lasting solutions. In the coming year we’ll build on the groundwork we laid in 2020 to seek consensus recommendations for large-scale renewable energy siting, support community-led climate change resolutions like the one recently adopted in Lander, and work with Tribal partners and other citizens toward permanent protection for parts of the incredible Northern Red Desert.
Our approach to conservation keeps us grounded in Wyoming. This doesn’t mean that we are always successful. There are frequent setbacks, but it’s this approach that accounts for the conservation gains we’ve celebrated over the last 54 years. With your support, I’m confident we’ll continue this progress — not just in the coming year or coming four years, but for the long haul.
Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over. In the arid West, there may be no more precious resource. So why would Wyoming risk contaminating a valuable reserve of fresh water for short term economic gain?
On November 10, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved a request by Aethon Energy to dispose of billions of gallons of oil and gas waste fluids from operations in the Moneta Divide into the Madison Aquifer.
The Madison is one of Wyoming’s most important aquifers, with remarkably high water quality. The Wyoming Water Development Commission considers the aquifer critically important for the water supply of the Wind River and Bighorn basins. It also supplies over a dozen Wyoming municipalities and the Bighorn regional water system, which provides water to 15 public water systems, and many ranching operations in the Bighorn Basin, Powder River Basin, and the Black Hills.
The Madison Aquifer is a valuable water source for Wyoming, and its value will only grow as our climate continues to change and drought becomes more frequent.
Because the Madison Aquifer serves as a current and potential drinking water supply, it is protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act — which prohibits injection of oil and gas wastewater. However, a company can seek an “aquifer exemption” if they can demonstrate that the aquifer “cannot now and will not in the future serve as a source of drinking water.”
Aethon, a Texas-based investment firm, purchased the Moneta Divide oil and gas field from the previous owner, Encana, and has plans to expand the field by an additional 4,250 wells. The Moneta Divide field, east of Shoshoni, is located primarily on federal public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. At full field development, these wells would produce about 59 million gallons a day of oil and gas wastewater — a mix of formation and flowback water from fracking that contains toxins like benzene and high levels of salts. This produced water is dangerous for aquatic life, public health, and the environment, and must be disposed of responsibly.
The BLM’s environmental review for the project states that treating and piping the water directly to Boysen Reservoir is the preferred method of disposal. Aethon acknowledges that treatment is “a viable option for managing the total volume of produced water within the Project Area,” and that “water treatment technology is evolving quickly and will likely become less expensive and more efficient in the future.”
But for now, water treatment is expensive, and Aethon has tried several methods to shift that cost to the Wyoming public. First, Aethon proposed to dispose of vast quantities of wastewater by dumping it into tributaries that flow into Boysen and downstream to the Wind and Bighorn rivers.
Now Aethon is proposing another alternative — injecting the wastewater into the Madison. This scheme is all too familiar. Aethon’s latest proposal is the fourth attempt by an operator to secure an injection permit for the Madison. The Oil and Gas Commission rejected previous requests after thoughtful deliberation by the commission, because the risk of contaminating the aquifer was too high.
Today, the composition of the commission has changed, and Aethon has renewed its efforts. At the November hearing, the commission heard hours of testimony from Aethon’s experts arguing that the injected wastewater could be contained in one part of the aquifer. The public raised numerous concerns during the scant half hour we had to present testimony.
More than 100 citizens filed written comments, unanimously opposing an exemption. As residents of Powell stated, “The current water quality is good and could in the future be pumped to the surface for municipal and/or industrial water supplies.” A resident of Pavillion, who has been dealing with drinking water contaminated by oil and gas activity for the past 15 years, wrote, “I am in favor of responsible development of our oil and gas resources, but not at the expense of contaminating our good quality drinking water.”
Despite the public concerns, the commission voted 4–1 to approve the exemption. Wyoming State Geologist Erin Campbell, the one dissenting vote, asked her fellow commissioners before voting, “Do you want to risk contaminating a viable aquifer?” and called Aethon’s venture “a gamble I don’t feel comfortable taking.”
The Madison Aquifer is a valuable water source for Wyoming, and its value will only grow as our climate continues to change and drought becomes more frequent. The Wyoming public isn’t comfortable rolling the dice with our water supply. Wyoming should take the long view and conserve our drinking water aquifers, not jeopardize an important public resource so that Aethon can avoid the cost of water treatment.
While Wyoming has primacy over injection wells in the state, new aquifer exemptions require EPA approval. The EPA will review the existing record, including written comments and testimony from the November hearing. We’ll continue advocating the protection of the Madison and will urge the EPA to deny this exemption. We’ll also let you know when there are opportunities for the public to weigh in again. Your voices every step of the way have made a difference.
On December 11, the Platte Valley mule deer migration corridor working group met for the first time. The seven people appointed to the group — representing agriculture, industry, conservation and recreation — are the first corridor working group established under Gov. Mark Gordon’s migration corridor executive order. Unfortunately, the initial meeting indicated that this group will likely consider removing the Platte Valley migration corridor designation, and weakening protections for this important herd. We’ll be blunt: the governor’s office appears to be prepared to yield ground to a small, loud group of voices that oppose the designation of migration corridors. But we know that many more of you value our big game and support common sense, locally-driven conservation protections.
If the Platte Valley is a special place to you, or if you know the iconic Platte Valley mule deer herd well, we encourage you to reach out to us as soon as possible. As the inaugural working group created under the governor’s order, Platte Valley will set an example for how other corridor working groups will operate in the future. And it’s important that this working group hear that the public supports science-based wildlife management that will help sustain our herds — and local wildlife economies — long into the future.
Mark your calendars for our next Conservation Cafeteria on Wednesday, January 6 — we’ll discuss the Platte Valley working group and all things migration. And if you are passionate about Platte Valley deer, please reach out to Kristen Gunther at kristen@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.
HOBACK RV PARK RESIDENTS AT RISK
Early this month the owner of Hoback RV Park informed tenants that they can stay on site through the winter, but their water and septic connections will be cut off after December 31. Residents will have the option to hire a private company to provide septic service to their trailers. This is a slight improvement — longtime residents previously faced eviction at the end of the year — but not a workable solution for all.
The owner, Crowley Capital, faces a number of serious violations of state and county regulations stemming from an inspection of the Teton County property that was requested by the Wyoming Outdoor Council, including liquid sewage seeping up from a failed septic system, disposal of concentrated nitrate waste into an unpermitted sump on the property, discharges exceeding permitted capacity limits, and water treatment equipment that was installed without a permit.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Teton County Commission have the authority to potentially fine the owners hundreds of thousands of dollars for the violations, some of which may date back 20 years and which left residents living in an unsanitary environment. The responsible parties, not their vulnerable tenants, should face the consequences, and the Outdoor Council has encouraged the regulatory agencies to work with the owners on a solution that is considerate of residents’ needs.
If you want to chip in, you can help support residents of the park with a donation through their GoFundMe page. The funds will help tenants pay for alternative septic services or the cost of moving their trailers.
RENEWABLES SITING GROUP BEGINS WORK
The Outdoor Council is taking part in the Wyoming Renewable Energy Siting Collaborative, an effort organized by the University of Wyoming to study issues related to utility-scale wind and solar energy development. Members of the group represent a wide range of interests and will be working together on policy recommendations that would minimize conflicts with wildlife, viewsheds, and other resources.
With sunny skies, plenty of wind, and a skilled workforce, Wyoming has great potential for renewable energy. But like all types of energy development, renewables projects can have unintended consequences if not sited in appropriate locations. A proactive approach to siting will help ensure future development is done right.
The Teton County Board of Commissioners and Jackson Town Council voted to approve a number of updates to the county’s comprehensive land use plan. This document, which will guide development over the coming years, was revised to include important water quality protections proposed by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Protect Our Water Jackson Hole. Chief among them is a directive for the county to develop a wastewater management plan that will address rising levels of nitrates in the Snake River Aquifer, which serves as the county’s only source of drinking water.
A patchwork of small wastewater plants, independent sewer districts, and private septic systems are serving Jackson Hole’s growing population, and some of these systems are unable to keep up with the demand or otherwise not functioning as intended. The wastewater management plan is expected to lead to improved regulation of treatment facilities and septic systems.
In the comprehensive plan, the county recognizes the public’s right to clean, affordable drinking water and the importance of the Snake River Aquifer. The plan also commits the county to:
Gather baseline data and coordinate with other agencies to monitor water quality.
Investigate regulations and ordinances to protect public water systems.
Examine new tools to protect water quality, such as an aquifer protection overlay.
Encourage public water suppliers to establish or update source water assessments and protection plans.
AETHON INJECTION REQUEST
The Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission voted to allow a company to inject oil and gas wastewater from the Moneta Divide field into the Madison formation, an aquifer protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This is unfortunate: More than 100 written comments, as well as public testimony before the commission, were unanimously opposed to this decision.
The company argued the depth of the aquifer at the well site, and levels of benzene in groundwater samples taken from the well, make it an impractical fresh water source. But the benzene may in fact be contamination from drilling mud used to bore the well and the state Department of Environmental Quality previously determined the aquifer was a viable source of drinking water. There’s also evidence that wastewater injected at the site will eventually spread.
In the arid West, faced with the uncertainty of a changing climate, we aren’t willing to sacrifice a source of fresh water that may prove invaluable to future generations. The EPA has final say on whether to approve the Oil and Gas Commission’s action and we’ll continue to defend potential drinking water sources.
First, thank you. Your earlier comments to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality persuaded the agency to deny Aethon Energy Company’s proposal to increase the discharge — from 2 million to over 8.25 million gallons per day — of oil and gas wastewater from the Moneta Divide field. Polluted wastewater from this facility is currently dumped into Alkali and Badwater creeks which flow into Boysen Reservoir and the Wind River.
We can’t thank you enough for writing the DEQ and attending the public meetings. Your voice made a big difference, but our efforts must continue to ensure long term protection of Boysen and its tributaries!
Although the DEQ has denied the increase, the existing discharge will be allowed to continue, despite having already caused significant damage to Alkali and Badwater creeks and likely having impacted aquatic life and water quality in Boysen Reservoir.
THE PROBLEM
While we support the improvements proposed by the DEQ in the revised draft permit, additional changes are needed to protect water quality and aquatic life. The revised permit must include more stringent pollution limits on the existing discharges to ensure that our surface waters — and all the uses and activities they support such as fishing, swimming, and irrigation — are protected for future generations.
The company’s existing DEQ discharge permit allows 908 tons per month of salts and other oil field pollutants to be discharged into Alkali and Badwater Creeks. Yet the DEQ’s own data reveals that this has already impacted the streams. And the existing discharge has exceeded legally required limits for pH, oil and grease, and chlorides, and contains no limits for benzene and other harmful chemicals.
The revised draft permit allows the same amount of salts and other harmful pollutants. The DEQ needs to do more to protect our lakes and streams from polluted oil and gas field wastewater.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please write to DEQ and thank them for their efforts, and for hearing your concerns. Then ask them to develop stronger limits on pollutants to ensure oil and gas wastewater does not continue to damage our streams and reservoirs.
ASK THE DEQ TO DO THE FOLLOWING:
Work with Aethon to clean up the existing damage caused by decades of oil field pollution in these streams;
Immediately reduce the monthly load of salts currently authorized in both the existing and proposed discharge permit;
Implement a one or two-year compliance schedule to achieve significant reductions in the concentration of chloride allowed in Badwater Creek. The DEQ’s proposal to allow Aethon four more years to achieve full compliance with chloride standards is just too long;
Deny any future requests to weaken the regulatory chloride standard currently applicable to Badwater Creek.
You can submit your comments online or mail them to: Kevin Frederick, DEQ/WQD Administrator 200 West 17th Street, Cheyenne, WY 82002
Comments must be received by February 17, 2020 for them to be considered.
The DEQ’s announcement, responses to your public comments and a copy of the revised draft permit are available here.
Thank you for your continued effort to deliver this critical message to the DEQ: “Don’t Poison Boysen.”
DECEMBER 2019 UPDATE: The Wyoming Outdoor Council and our partners have requested that the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality inspect potential existing violations of Wyoming water quality standards at Moneta Divide, and we are still awaiting a reply. We are concerned that the DEQ involved Aethon, the project proponent, in its study of stream health that was in response to public concerns about potential impacts to wildlife and public health. The DEQ intends to reissue a revised permit for wastewater discharge in January. We’re also awaiting the Bureau of Land Management’s Environmental Impact Statement for the Moneta Divide project, which must evaluate wastewater disposal issues. Please stay tuned for how you can weigh in to protect our water, and tell the DEQ “Don’t Poison Boysen!”
This past spring, snowmelt unleashed just as heavy rains fell for several weeks, swelling the reservoir at Boysen State Park to capacity. The Bureau of Reclamation increased flows to 7,000 cubic feet per second below the dam, pushing water high along the banks of the Wind and Bighorn rivers, creating a challenge for drifters.
But the fishing was still hot.
“Yesterday we had two boats out, and each of our boats hooked up to about 40 fish — all in that 18- to 20-inch range,” fishing guide John Schwalbe said back in June.
Schwalbe, owner of Wyoming Adventures in Thermopolis, has guided on the Bighorn for 25 years, owing his livelihood to the Blue Ribbon trout fishery that produces big rainbows, browns, and cutthroat.
“I wouldn’t live in Thermopolis, Wyoming, if it were not for the Bighorn River that runs through it. It’s my livelihood, it’s the reason why I stuck around this area.”
— John Schwalbe, River Guide
A lot of his regular clients are locals who work in the oil and gas industry, and in addition to navigating the high water and figuring out what flies trout were hitting, the big topic of discussion this spring was the future of this fishery.
Upstream in the watershed is the Moneta Divide oil and gas field, where Texas-based Aethon Energy proposes to drill 4,100 new wells over the next 15 years — an economic boost for many communities in a part of the state that desperately needs jobs and revenue. But the company’s plan includes dumping up to 8.27 million gallons per day of “produced” oilfield wastewater — groundwater mixed in the oil- and gas-bearing formations — into tributaries of Boysen Reservoir.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality relied on modeling from a consultant hired by Aethon to determine that decreases in water quality in the Class 1 Wind River were insignificant. The DEQ’s analysis also found that impacts to Alkali and Badwater creeks would meet regulatory requirements. As it turned out, neither conclusion was correct.
Although some residents want to see the drilling project move forward for the jobs and revenue, many worry that Aethon and the state didn’t do a thorough job of analyzing the plan and didn’t provide safeguards to ensure the viability of livelihoods that are tied to Boysen and to the Wind and Bighorn rivers.
“There’s a responsibility that we have here to manage our state well, but also put people to work. I’m all for that,” Schwalbe said. “But not at the cost of our watersheds and natural resources. Not at all.”
Clean water is too important to risk
With the help of partners and members, the Wyoming Outdoor Council hired hydrologists, aquatic biologists, and other scientists to conduct a detailed, expert analysis of the proposal by Aethon and the DEQ. The results were troubling. The analysis revealed significant flaws in the plan that would severely threaten aquatic life and municipal drinking water sources, as well as the economic and cultural values that tie Schwalbe and so many others to these iconic Wyoming waters.
“This proposal violates the Clean Water Act, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, and the DEQ’s own rules about implementing these important laws,” attorney and Outdoor Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said. “Fundamentally, though, the proposal unnecessarily risks the health and livelihoods of Wyomingites. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are other solutions.”
The Outdoor Council is not the only voice pointing out that good jobs and economic development should not be at odds with clean water and healthy fisheries. In many cases, they’re one and the same. Dusty Lewis is among a growing number of locals in Hot Springs County who hope to boost tourism in the area. Lewis owns Rent Adventure in Thermopolis, renting out drift boats, rafts, kayaks, and paddle boards.
“We spend a lot of time in the water, and we do a lot of fishing,” he said.
While Aethon and the DEQ assured the public that there’s no risk associated with the plan to use Boysen Reservoir as an oilfield wastewater mixing zone, Lewis and others were not fully convinced. There’s too much at stake, said Lewis.
“If the fishery were damaged, that would probably be the worst thing.”
He noted that everyone in Thermopolis recognizes the outsized role the Bighorn plays in the community, and suggested that economics is only part of the equation. The river and the outdoor way of life it supports is a huge part of the community’s identity. That’s why this proposal is so troubling.
“I’ve got a five- and seven-year-old — Fischer and Fletcher — and they are outdoor junkies,” Lewis said. “They would be some little angry rugrats if something happened. They would be like, ‘Dad, why didn’t you act more responsibly and help the river get saved?’ So I think about it for them. The next generation coming up has a lot to overcome.”
Lewis also serves on the town council in Thermopolis. The town draws from the Bighorn for its municipal water. A change in water quality could add to operational costs at the town’s water treatment plant. Alternate sources for municipal water come with their own costs. Locals worry that tapping aquifers nearby could affect the town’s world-famous hot springs, and tapping aquifers elsewhere would come at a significant expense.
“There’s a lot of variables when you talk about changing water sources,” said Lewis.
Sustaining clean water is a win-win
Based on the scientific and legal analysis, the Outdoor Council submitted comments to the DEQ in July asking that the agency go back to the drawing board. “A careful look revealed so many significant flaws in this plan that we’re confident it won’t stand without a fundamental revision to ensure that water quality standards are met, and that downstream users and livelihoods are protected,” Heilig said.
This story went to press before we could learn of the DEQ’s response to the Outdoor Council’s comments or its proposed next steps. We were encouraged, however, by the number of public comments urging the DEQ to deny the permit — including a powerful letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that identified numerous significant flaws in the draft permit.
If the DEQ forwards its plan for Aethon Energy’s wastewater surface discharge permit without meaningful revision, the state may still face challenges to hold it accountable for safeguarding clean water resources. The Outdoor Council is committed to insisting that Wyoming’s clean water is protected.
As oil and gas leasing picks up around Wyoming, and as the Moneta Divide project expands, making sure that energy development doesn’t come at the expense of Wyoming’s clean air and water and healthy wildlife populations will continue to be a challenge.
It’s one worth meeting head on.
“Wyoming residents were given a false choice — that we must accept lower water quality and unknown risks in return for economic development,” Heilig said. “We know better. We hope that the DEQ takes into account the thousands of residents who rely on these iconic waters today and for generations to come.”
