SEO opens water conservation program
Holders of valid water rights from the Green River, Little Snake River and their tributaries within Wyoming’s portion of the Colorado River Basin will be eligible to apply to the recently enacted Voluntary Water Conservation Program Act.
Irrigation, livestock, agricultural, industrial and municipal water rights are some beneficial uses where incentives could help rights holders find ways to use less water and send more water into storage and downstream in the voluntary program.
Background information
Past water conservation pilot projects in the Upper and Lower Colorado River basins, including participating Green River ranchers and farmers, resulted in water “savings” with participating water rights holders compensated by state and federal funds, with incentives of varying amounts paid per acre-foot conserved.
In its 2024 annual report, the Colorado River Water Users Association reported Wyoming and others implemented the voluntary, temporary and compensated System Conservation Pilot Program for several years with plans to continue similar conservation activities.
As an example, in 2023, Wyoming hosted 21 water conservation projects – 19 of them irrigation, one municipal and one industrial – which conserved an estimated 16,000 acre-feet of water.
Wyoming law prohibits mandating water distribution, except for the direst situation, and ongoing drought continues to threaten and worsen shortfalls throughout the Colorado River Basin and its tributaries.
Wyoming cannot mandate broad cuts on senior water rights holders who have beneficial uses for the water. If users do not use their water and send it downstream, however, they risk losing their long-held rights.
Wyoming water conservation projects must be voluntary and state administered.
This foundational policy conflicts with federal calls for mandatory curtailment.
Dry winter
The past winter brought lower than average snowpack and snow water equivalent (SWE) across much of western Wyoming. Warmer than usual weather has quickly thawed respectable snowpacks, swelling streams and creeks with early spring runoff.
On May 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service’s 23rd snow report for Water Year 2025-26 reported, “Currently the state’s snowpack telemetry data reads 33 percent of median, with a basin high of 74 percent and a basin low of three percent. Last year, the state was at 69 percent and at 103 percent in 2024.”
The Upper Green River Basin’s SWE was 79 percent on May 18, 2025, compared to 32 percent on May 18 of this year. The Lower Green River, measured at 67 percent in May 2025, has dropped to 29 percent this year. The Little Snake River, which enjoyed 114 percent SWE on May 18, 2025, is now at 25 percent.
Voluntary Water Conservation Act
The Wyoming Legislature finalized the new Select Water Committee-sponsored legislation, the Voluntary Water Conservation Act Program, which took effect on March 7 during the 2026 budget session.
Introduced as Senate File 84, the bill fleshes out how the state would administer the program in Enrolled Act 62.
The legislation is described as “an act relating to water within Wyoming’s portion of the Colorado River Basin, establishing a voluntary water conservation program, providing an application and approval process for the program, providing an appeal process, authorizing the storage and release of water conserved under the program, establishing a sunset date, providing legislative findings, requiring a report, requiring rulemaking, authorizing positions, providing an appropriation and providing for an effective date.”
It defines the Colorado River Basin as outlined in the Colorado River Basin Compact of November 1922 among the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming for the purpose of reducing domestic or agricultural consumptive use “or helps satisfy Wyoming’s interstate compact obligations through interstate agreements or otherwise.”
The act details which water rights may be applicable, how to apply to the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office (SEO) and how to address potential adverse effects to other water rights holders.
The SEO can refuse any application if the proposed conservation project “appears to be detrimental to the public interest or to provide for or aid in the interstate marketing of water.”
It specifically addresses diversions, appeals and timing for program participation and places strong focus on water storage at Fontenelle Reservoir and “other reservoirs located within Wyoming’s portion of the Colorado River Basin,” as well as assessing their suitability for the storage of water conserved under the program.
The Wyoming Legislature appropriated $510,000 from the General Fund to fund new positions and implement the SEO program through June 30, 2028.
Public meetings
The SEO has set up three public meetings in Pinedale, Lyman and Baggs to provide more detailed information about the voluntary program.
The meeting in Pinedale will take place on June 17 from 2-5 p.m. at the Sublette County School District Administration Building.
On June 18, the meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Lyman High School Auditorium in Lyman, and the third meeting will take place on June 22 from 1-4 p.m. at the Valley Community Center in Baggs.
Joy Ufford is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
