For the first time in history, the federal government has proposed significant rollbacks to how the National Environmental Policy Act reviews the environmental impacts of development on public lands. The draft regulations would make major cuts to public participation, and in many cases, completely remove the public from the decision making process. The rollbacks would also prevent agencies from considering the broader impacts of projects to the region and the country.
What’s more, removing the public from the equation won’t speed up the review process — the stated intent of the rollbacks. In cases when the act requires detailed environmental reviews it’s typically federal agencies — not the public — that cause delays. In fact, there are multiple cases in recent years where Wyoming residents made the process more efficient by contributing their local expertise to projects.
The people of Wyoming share a strong connection to our public lands, and should have a seat at the table when decisions are being made. Join us in asking Gov. Mark Gordon to stand up for public participation in the management of our public lands. Read our letter to the governor for just a few examples of how public input has helped safeguard natural resources, outdoor recreation opportunities, and private property rights in Wyoming.
The governor will be submitting comments to the federal government regarding these changes on March 10. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we hear more.
If you would like to read the proposed rule change in its entirety, or submit comments of your own to the federal Council on Environmental Quality, you can do so by following this link.
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.”
Jacob Pries gravitated toward becoming a policy wonk early in his academic career, excited to one day help conserve the great outdoors he enjoyed so much while growing up in the Midwest. Halfway through his political science undergrad work at the College of Wooster, he also acquired an intense interest in geology, prompting him to take on a double minor in environmental studies and geology.
“If you’d told me I’d fall in love with rocks, I would have told you that you were crazy,” said Jacob who grew up hunting and fishing. But that passion helped build a solid foundation for a career that ties the geologic past to the present — and that connects those who inform critical environmental policy with the natural world.
“I want to give back to something that’s given so much to me.”
Jacob, 24, is working as an intern at the Wyoming Outdoor Council this summer, digging deep into National Environmental Policy Act matters related to water quality issues in Wyoming, among other things. So far, he’s worked long-distance from his hometown of Wadsworth, Ohio, but he plans on making his way to Wyoming soon. He’s especially excited to visit Yellowstone. “I understand it’s absolutely beautiful, so I’d love to get to see the crown jewel of Wyoming and the country.”
I had the opportunity to visit with Jacob recently. Here’s what we discussed about conservation and his hopes to bring people together for smart conservation policy:
What do you hope to give back in terms of connecting people and the outdoors?
People develop a connection to the land. One thing I love about hunting and fishing so much is that connection you feel. It means more to you than you can express in words. The greatest thing about being outdoors is when you’re out there you feel like part of something bigger than yourself, and that’s really rewarding. People are passionate about natural resources and public lands because of that connection — we’re part of an entire scheme of things, that’s what drives people to make sure these places they are connected to are conserved. It’s so important to get people outside and experience, that’s how you get people to care.
What are you working on at WOC this summer?
NEPA and Clean Water Act issues [related to Aethon Energy’s plan to dump oilfield wastewater into Boysen Reservoir], sage-grouse restoration, and mule deer migration corridor work. They are big issues in Wyoming and the West, so it’s really exciting. I learned that the Moneta Divide project is extremely complicated — it’s big in size and it’s big in its implications. That’s one thing I try to realize is the implications of what I’m working on, and I try to [understand] the implications for the people affected. It keeps you motivated and moving in the direction you want to move.
What do you see yourself doing in five years?
Foremost, I’m blessed to be doing what I am now, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. I have a fiancé, so I look forward to getting married and starting a family — those are the big things. As for career aspirations, I’m grateful and thankful for whatever comes my way. I’m interested in policy work and giving back to what’s given me so much — make sure my children and their children get to experience what I’ve experienced in the outdoors.
Wyoming relies on clean water. From our world-class fishing and recreation, to irrigation and municipal use, clean water is a cornerstone of Wyoming’s economy and our way of life.
That’s why it was no surprise that hundreds of citizens packed two recent meetings to learn more about the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed “surface discharge permit” for wastewater from the Moneta Divide oil and gas project.
Unfortunately, the dense, highly technical proposal — which would allow more than 8 million gallons per day of oilfield wastewater to be discharged into Alkali and Badwater creeks — does not adequately address environmental and human costs, and it seriously threatens the health of those creeks, Boysen Reservoir, and the communities downstream.
The DEQ’s proposal also sets up a false dichotomy: that Wyomingites must accept lesser water quality in exchange for the jobs and revenue that the Moneta oil and natural gas expansion plan promises.
The people of Wyoming know better.
There are solutions that allow for continued energy development in this area that don’t also risk the health of communities, fisheries, or the places we love. The DEQ needs to consider them.
What’s at stake: Wyoming’s clean water economy and heritage
Thousands of people rely on Boysen Reservoir and Boysen State Park for fishing, camping and recreation, as well as the revenue those activities provide. Recognizing that, the DEQ rules designate Boysen Reservoir a “high quality water” requiring “the highest statutory and regulatory requirements for all new and existing point source discharges . . . ”
Boysen flows into the Wind River, a vital resource for many communities. It cuts through the beautiful Wind River Canyon and becomes the Bighorn River at Wedding of the Waters just south of Thermopolis. The Blue Ribbon trout fisheries are integral to outfitters and the local tourism industry. The Bighorn provides municipal water for Thermopolis, and is a lifeline for irrigated agriculture throughout the Bighorn Basin.
THE PROPOSAL
The DEQ’s wastewater surface discharge proposal is the linchpin to a major drilling expansion in the historic Moneta Divide oil and gas field east of Shoshoni. Texas-based Aethon Energy, the main operator in the field, wants to add up to 4,100 new wells over the next 15 years. The project would support hundreds of jobs and provide an economic boon to several communities in the area that desperately need it. But the scale of the expansion, and the geology of the Moneta Divide field, present a major challenge.
The targeted oil and gas formations are laden with dirty water that would be brought to the surface with the oil and gas, requiring a massive undertaking to properly manage large volumes of “produced” water in a way that meets legal standards to protect existing clean water resources and uses.
The Moneta Divide oil and gas field currently has a reverse-osmosis water cleanup plant — the Neptune Water Treatment Facility. But the facility can handle only a small portion of the produced water that Aethon must manage. The field is also equipped with several wastewater injection wells, and Aethon’s proposal calls for several more injection wells to be constructed, as well as surface pits and other water handling methods. Even so, the massive volume of produced water still exceeds the capacity of these systems.
The DEQ proposes to allow Aethon to dump up to 8.27 million gallons per day of untreated and partially treated produced water into the riparian Alkali and Badwater creeks. The highly saline wastewater, which contains a long list of pollutants, would flow 40 miles west to Boysen Reservoir to settle and dilute in a “mixing zone” in Boysen’s Badwater Bay, according to the proposed DEQ permit.
In its proposal, the DEQ’s Water Quality Division relied on modeling and analysis from a consultant hired by Aethon Energy to determine that the discharge would not result in adverse impacts to human health or aquatic life in Boysen Reservoir, and would result in only minor, acceptable decreases in water quality in the Wind and Bighorn rivers downstream of Boysen.
Our analysis suggests otherwise. For the past two months, we’ve worked with fisheries biologists, hydrologists, and other scientific experts to take a closer look at the DEQ’s proposed discharge permit and the modeling it’s based on. We’ve found a number of flaws resulting in significant threats to the state’s surface waters, and will point these out to the DEQ in our written comments.
what we’ve discovered so far:
Impacts to aquatic life in Alkali Creek and in Badwater Creek from the daily discharge of millions of gallons of contaminated oil field wastewater will likely violate water quality standards for those streams.
Polluted wastewater entering Badwater Bay, a proposed mixing zone, could harm an important nursery area for sauger, a species of fish related to the walleye.
The Wind River will be degraded, despite a strict anti-degradation standard for Class 1 rivers.
Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing may enter Boysen Reservoir and contaminate drinking water supplies used by the Town of Thermopolis.
The water quality baseline used to determine pollution levels in the WInd River should be 1979, the year when the Wind River was designated a Class 1 river — not 2010-2016.
There’s another way
The previous owner of the Moneta Divide field, Encana, proposed a number of options to avoid problematic surface discharge of wastewater and the environmental damage it would cause. Among its solutions were deep well injection and treating the wastewater to Class 1 standards, then piping and discharging it into Boysen Reservoir. But the DEQ hasn’t considered any alternatives beyond the surface discharge proposed by Aethon, even though such analysis is required by the DEQ’s own rules.
We’re asking the DEQ to analyze other options. If surface discharge is necessary, the produced water should be purified and piped to Boysen Reservoir, not dumped into Alkali and Badwater creeks, where the environmental impacts will be devastating.
If done right, the Moneta Divide Project could be a “win-win” for local economies and downstream communities. The construction of advanced water treatment facilities and pipelines to transport purified water from the Moneta Divide field to Boysen Reservoir would provide high-paying jobs and protect the environment.
If done incorrectly, the discharge of massive quantities of produced water could devastate the Wind River and Bighorn River blue ribbon fisheries, contaminate municipal drinking water supplies, and render irrigation water unsuitable for crop production, leaving a legacy of pollution for future generations to clean up.
A robust energy industry doesn’t mean we must sacrifice our vital clean water resources. Energy development can be done responsibly.
Please join us in asking the DEQ and Aethon Energy to go back to the drawing board and develop a proposal that protects water quality for present and future generations.
Ever splash in a backcountry stream or dip your face in an alpine pool to cool off after a strenuous hike?
Ever wonder who’s in charge of making sure those waters are clean — or how those decisions are made?
Right now, we have an opportunity to weigh in on a comprehensive review of Wyoming’s water quality standards, and to urge the Department of Environmental Quality to adopt the most protective standards available to protect water-based recreation, human health, and aquatic life.
Pushing for a more open review of water quality rules
Every three years, as required by the Clean Water Act, the DEQ reviews the standards that govern the quality of Wyoming’s surface waters. Often, the agency will propose changes that will provide increased protection for streams and lakes. But it sometimes proposes changes that may result in weakening water quality standards, which could significantly threaten human health and fisheries.
In its current review, the DEQ is considering a number of important changes to the existing standards, including a completely new classification system that will assign different levels of protection depending on uses of the water, and revising criteria for temporary exceedances of pollution limits intended to protect public health. It is also considering allowing for increased water temperatures caused by human activity, and changing the definitions of “primary” and “secondary” recreational use.
On October 12th we weighed in on the DEQ’s “Initial Scoping” document, which outlined several important changes to the water quality standards being considered (read our comments here). Although the initial scoping period is closed, we encourage you to contact the DEQ if you have concerns you’d like to share.We’ll also let you know when the formal comment period opens, and how to weigh in then.
“The triennial review process is wonky, and can be difficult for the average person to engage in,” Outdoor Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said. “But it’s a tremendously important opportunity to guide how our state protects water quality for recreation, fisheries and public health. There needs to be more outreach to the general public, and particularly to those in the outdoor recreation community.”
The most important thing for you to stress in your comments is how important clean water is to you.
A sweeping downgrade for Wyoming waters
One of the issues we’re tracking is how the state categorizes waterways for recreational use, which determines allowable levels of E. coli, a bacteria that can make people seriously ill.
You might remember that in 2016 the DEQ reclassified — or downgraded — 87,775 miles of streams to allow for a 500 percent increase in allowable levels of E. coli. These so-called “low flow” stream segments, flowing below six cubic feet per second, were assumed by DEQ to be too small for recreational use — such as swimming, dunking or “child’s play” — where water might be ingested.
The assumption was incorrect, so we fought back. But the DEQ had dug in its heels, and refused to recognize that primary contact recreation takes place on all kinds of surface waters, particularly on public lands where recreational use is high. Wyoming is the only state in the nation to use the Categorical Use Attainability Analysis for Recreation model to conduct such a statewide downgrade, rather than a segment-by-segment process based on actual field-collected data.
The DEQ’s model was far too sweeping: it effectively deemed 80 percent of Wyoming’s waterways — including many small streams where people are known to splash and dunk — unsuitable for primary contact recreation. It also didn’t prioritize robust public outreach to recreational users and others who would be most impacted by the changes.
Additionally, while the choice to use the UAA model to reclassify waterways helped save DEQ time and resources, it was also a model that put the huge burden of determining which streams should not be downgraded onto the public.
WOC provides missing information
This past summer, our legal intern, Rob Kutchin, a student at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, worked with Heilig to review the DEQ’s statewide downgrade. They found numerous streams around the state that, according to the DEQ’s own definition of “primary contact recreation,” should have retained the highest water quality standards. Instead, these streams — many near established recreation sites — had been downgraded.
For example, under the DEQ’s faulty model, just three dispersed campsites in all of Fremont County retained the stronger standard. In fact, there are more than 30 such campsites off Lander’s Loop Road alone, all of which should have received protection as sites for primary contact recreation. Perhaps most troubling, the DEQ lowered water quality protection on streams near the Fremont County Youth Camp, which is visited by hundreds of children each summer.
The Outdoor Council alerted the DEQ to more than 75 recreation sites overlooked by the model. Another group alerted DEQ about an additional 63 Forest Service trailheads the agency missed in its data collection efforts.
“We thought this would be an easy ask,” Heilig said. “Our hope was that the DEQ would quickly correct these types of obvious errors. Instead, it rejected all of this information and said it would not accept data-based corrections to its location modeling.”
In other words, the DEQ used incomplete datasets to erroneously downgrade water quality standards for thousands of stream miles, then said it would only accept site-specific evidence collected in the field — requiring stringent criteria — before considering corrections to the model.
The DEQ’s comprehensive review is especially important as we keep pushing to protect these waterways — because it’s an opportunity for the recreation standards themselves to be revised, upward or downward.
We expect Wyoming DEQ will publish its proposed revisions to the water quality standards sometime within the next few months. Meantime, we’ve asked DEQ to hold public hearings and conduct additional outreach about its triennial review in Lander and Jackson, communities where outdoor recreation is a significant driver of local economies and central to quality of life. We’ll keep you posted. Stay tuned for details on how to comment.
A bad idea for Badwater Creek
Just as we were going to press, we learned about a proposal being advanced by the DEQ to permit higher levels of industrial pollutants in central Wyoming’s Badwater Creek. Aethon Energy says it needs to dispose of an estimated 1 million barrels per day of toxic “produced water” from its proposed drilling expansion in the Moneta Divide natural gas field. The company wants to discharge the waste into Badwater Creek, which flows directly into Boysen Reservoir, the main feature at Boysen State Park. Boysen feeds into the Wind River, a designated Class I “outstanding resource water” in Wind River Canyon, upstream of Thermopolis. Allowing this kind of industrial disposal into Badwater Creek could present dire threats to fisheries and human health throughout a watershed central to rural economies and lifestyles for a major portion of the state.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised concerns with the proposal and ask the DEQ to provide more data about the potential impacts. We will keep a close eye on the matter as it moves forward, so stay tuned.
Growing up in Wisconsin, Rob Kutchin is familiar with how important water — clean water — is for us, our health, and our local ecosystems. Kutchin grew up near the state’s capital, Madison, a city oriented around two large lakes that generate notable pride for its residents. Wisconsin has one of the highest ratios of water to land mass of any state. He said it’s nearly impossible for kids raised there — playing, swimming and fishing in these waters — to not develop an awareness about water’s significance to everyday life. Kutchin, now a 27 year-old Juris Doctor degree candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, has earned the opportunity to reinforce this same awareness in Wyoming. This June, Kutchin was hired as a legal intern to work alongside Dan Heilig, the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s senior conservation advocate, on a project to restore proper protections for Wyoming’s water. The idea for this project stems from our work over the past three years, in response to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s reclassification of nearly 80 percent of Wyoming’s waterways in August 2014. The DEQ used a statewide analysis called a Categorical Use Attainability Analysis for Recreation to determine and implement these reclassifications. Based largely on modeling, the DEQ’s analysis — the first of its kind undertaken by any U.S. state — was intended to gather information about all of Wyoming’s streams, their depths, locations, and primary use.
The final reclassification downgraded 82,896 miles of low-flow streams from primary contact recreation to secondary contact recreation. Unlike primary contact recreation, defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as activities where incidental ingestion of water is possible from splashing, wading, head dunking or swimming, secondary contact presumes the flow would be too low to support these activities. With the loss of primary contact status, the state now allows for increased levels of E. coli pollution over time, as much as five times more E. coli than primary contact streams. E. coli is an indicator of harmful pathogens in waterways and presents increased health risks for anyone coming into contact with it. Despite the DEQ’s assertion that the reclassification includes mostly remote and shallow streams, the agency did revise its initial decision in 2016 following public outcry. Heilig said he knows there are many improperly downgraded streams in the state that people frequent throughout the summer. This summer, Kutchin will work with Heilig to identify some of these streams in and around Fremont County, and will also work alongside dozens of NOLS students to document water flow levels and test recreational capacity — by sometimes splashing around themselves — and documenting that activity. Armed with this evidence, the Outdoor Council hopes to make a strong case to the DEQ for returning misclassified streams to primary contact status. The NOLS students make excellent partners for Kutchin’s work since many of the downgraded streams lie just outside wilderness areas, where many hikers often cross on their way into the backcountry. Their participation and data collection will allow the Outdoor Council to accurately document how these downgraded streams are being used for recreation.
Kutchin has already spent many of his first few days in the Shoshone National Forest, exploring streams near dispersed campsites and trailheads that the DEQ’s predictive map analysis may have missed or misclassified. He said he’s grateful for the opportunity to work in the familiar Wind River Range, where he’s been leading NOLS wilderness education courses as an instructor for nearly seven years. His experience in the backcountry, as a NOLS instructor, a volunteer search and rescue ranger in Alaska with the National Park Service, and a leadership course director in Death Valley, California, only serve to further strengthen his advocacy for clean water sources for safe outdoor recreation. “When you’re in the backcountry, you organize almost all of your life around water,” Kutchin said. “It dictates when you stop, where you stop, where you camp. New students sometimes forget to, or improperly treat their water, or on a hot day, after hours of hiking, plunge into cool pools without thinking about the potential hazards in the water. The DEQ’s downgrades make this thought necessary.”
As he continues to gather data and evidence over the summer, Kutchin and Heilig will write formal petitions to the DEQ asking the agency to properly classify these streams to protect those who engage in primary contact recreation — like NOLS students, and other backcountry hikers, hunters, and anglers.
“I hope the DEQ will recognize how important clean water is to our outdoor lifestyle in Wyoming by responding positively to our data collection and petitions,” Kutchin said. “And I hope our work will inspire people to reflect on the central role that water plays in their lives.”
