Tagged: water

Concerns about possible water shortages have lead the Riverton City Council to adopt a drought plan and implement mild restrictions. Under the plan’s level green, there are no restrictions. The current yellow level asks residents to conserve water voluntarily. Voluntary water conservation measures include fixing leaks and avoiding watering lawns during the hottest parts of the day.

Tribal officials on the Wind River Reservation continue to seek answers after the Department of Energy announced that uranium was found in some residents' tap water.

DOE officials announced last week that data collected in the fall indicated that four households near a former uranium waste site had levels of uranium nearly twice the legal limit.

Water specialists at the Natural Resources Conservation Service say that snowpack throughout the state is well below what’s average at this time of year. The northwest corner of the state is closest to what’s considered normal, but the state-wide average is 54 percent of that.

Water specialist for the NRCS, Lee Hackleman, says this could mean drought. 

"If it stays warm and dry like this we’re liable to see some of the drought-like conditions come back into our state, which we haven’t had for a few years. If everybody remembers, 4 or 5 years ago, a lot of the state was in drought. And right now we’re headed in that direction. Doesn’t mean we’re going to get there, but that’s the direction we’re headed."

At a meeting with Pavillion residents this morning, Governor Mead said he wants to continue providing people with safe water.

Pavillion is at the center of an EPA investigation about whether hydraulic fracturing has contaminated the town’s drinking water supply. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease recommended that residents refrain from drinking the water AND shower with their windows open, and as a result, area oil and gas producer EnCana, and the state of Wyoming, are now paying to have bottled water delivered to residents.

Mead says he’s hopeful that residents of Pavillion and the Wind River Tribes can come to a solution for safe drinking water.

 The National Science Foundation has awarded Wyoming and Utah researchers six million dollars to study how Climate change and other factors will affect water storage and availability in the inter-mountain west.  University of Wyoming Civil Engineering Professor Fred Ogden says the researchers will develop high-performance computer models to understand complex water issues facing western states.                            .

“What we would like to have at the very minimum is a better understanding of how the system works. Ultimately though we would like to have a tool that basin users, interest groups, basin advisory groups, water managers and state agencies could use to help predict the future state of the system".