Temporary water use-municipalities.

WORKING DRAFT
2005
STATE OF WYOMING
05LSO-0461.E1

SENATE FILE
NO.
SF0056

Temporary water use-municipalities.

Sponsored by:
Select Water Committee

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to water; providing for a municipality to temporarily use stored water as specified; providing a sunset date; requiring a report; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.
W.S. 41
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3
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110 by creating a new subsection (e) is amended to read:

41
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3
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110.

Right to acquire temporary water rights for highway or railroad roadbed construction or repair; application; restrictions; fee.

(e)

Notwithstanding the requirements of W.S. 41
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3
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101, an incorporated municipality which is the owner of any adjudicated or valid unadjudicated water storage right, may apply to the state engineer under subsection (b) of this section for the release and temporary use of water stored under the right for
the purpose of nonconsumptive use. The state engineer may approve the application for nonconsumptive temporary use if the following conditions are met:

(i)

Upon receipt of an application for use of water under this subsection, the state engineer shall determine the feasibility of providing flow and impacts on the hydrology of the stream segment and any other findings and conclusions as he deems appropriate. For those applications where the nonconsumptive use is for instream flow purposes the flow shall be the minimum amount necessary to maintain or improve existing fisheries;

(ii)

The nonconsumptive use occurs within a natural stream channel through a stream segment limited as follows:

(A)

From a point upstream of the applying municipality where the municipal boundary intersects the stream to a point downstream from the departure of the stream from the municipal boundary designated by the state engineer as optimum for his office’s administration;

(B)

The downstream limit shall not exceed one (1) mile from the municipal boundary.

(iii)

No other owner of an adjudicated or valid unadjudicated water right with a point of diversion located downstream from the stream segment under consideration by the state engineer for the temporary nonconsumptive use is willing, at no cost to the owner of the water right, to beneficially use all of the released storage water according to the conditions set forth in the owner’s existing downstream water right;

(iv)

As evidence of meeting the requirements of paragraph (ii) of this subsection, the municipality applying for the temporary nonconsumptive use shall publish, at the applicant’s expense, for three (3) consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the temporary transfer is to occur, a notice specifying the description of the stream segment, the volume, rate and timing of the municipal storage release that would be available for beneficial use, at no cost, to a downstream owner of an adjudicated or valid unadjudicated water right;

(v)

The state engineer determines that a temporary change of use under this subsection will not injure any other appropriator of the state’s water;

(vi)

This subsection is repealed effective July 1, 2011.

Section 2.

The state engineer, in conjunction with the Wyoming water development office, shall report to the governor and the select water committee on the potential impact of this act on existing and future water storage in Wyoming. The report shall be filed no later than October 1, 2006 and shall include any recommendations for statutory change.

Section 3.

This act is effective immediately upon co
m
pletion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constit
u
tion.

(END)

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SF0056