Brandon Reynolds

The Wyoming Legislature is in session. Here’s what you need to know. 

Posted on by Brandon Reynolds

The Wyoming Legislature gaveled in for the 2023 general session at noon Tuesday, Jan. 10, where lawmakers will confront a lot of new faces (including 29 new representatives and five new senators), a $913 million budget surplus, and perhaps as many as 700 individual bills. What comes next is a 40-day sprint for legislators to craft, debate, and pass legislation that can impact Wyoming’s communities, economy, environment, and quality of life for years or generations to come.

With so many people and issues competing for legislators’ attention — and so much on the line for Wyoming’s future — it’s crucial to remind them at every opportunity that conservation is a priority.

This means you, and Wyoming Outdoor Council members like you, will need to get involved. It makes a difference in Wyoming when legislators hear from you — their constituents and neighbors — and thanks to your dedication we’ve had significant successes in Cheyenne over the years. This year, we ask you to stay engaged and speak up for clean air, clean water, healthy wildlife, and public lands.

Here’s what you can expect from the Outdoor Council during the session:

A CLOSE EYE ON CONSERVATION BILLS

WOC will work to ensure development of state lands doesn’t come at the cost of Wyoming’s open spaces, wildlife, clean air and clean water, and to support responsible siting of renewable energy development. We’ll support adequate funding for state agencies that steward our natural resources and protect air and water quality. And we’ll be vigilant against bad ideas that tend to creep into legislation year after year — like state takeover of federal public lands and attacks on rooftop solar energy.

YOUR FULL-TIME VOICE IN CHEYENNE

The Wyoming Capitol is where the work gets done and, as usual, WOC will have a full time presence in Cheyenne this session. Your primary lobbyists will be Era Aranow of Lander (a seasoned legislative advocate who represented WOC at the 2022 session) and Keith Rittle of Laramie (a geologist and former WOC board member). Additionally, other WOC conservation advocates will rotate down to Cheyenne to weigh in on important issues where they have expertise.

WEEKLY UPDATES AND ACTION ALERTS

Things move quickly down in Cheyenne, so we’ll keep you up to speed with weekly email updates. We’ll also alert you when there are important opportunities to share your perspectives by contacting your legislators or giving a public testimony.

EDUCATIONAL (& FUN!) PROGRAMS

Last week, we hosted a virtual Wyoming Legislature 101 event along with Powder River Basin Resource Council to explain the legislative process, how to read a bill and navigate the legislative website, and how to share an effective message with lawmakers. You can watch a replay of the panel discussion on our YouTube channel. Coming up, we’ll be hosting two Beers & Bills events to talk about important bills, get your input, and share our insights from the Capitol. Mark your calendar for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25 at Coal Creek Tap in Laramie, and 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 at Bella Fuoco in Cheyenne.

POST-SESSION REPORTS

Each year, after the dust finally settles, WOC publishes our Conservation Vote Report with analysis of conservation issues that were debated during the session, and a record of how your lawmakers voted on key conservation bills.

Many, many bills will be introduced in the early days of the session so be sure to sign up for WOC emails and watch your inbox for our regular updates and alerts. In the meantime, please feel free to email me anytime if you have questions.

And don’t forget, you can use the legislature’s website to read the full text of bills, find committee meeting schedules, sign up to testify online, or look up your legislators’ contact information: www.wyoleg.gov

This plan will protect Laramie’s drinking water. Add your voice today.

Posted on by Brandon Reynolds

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.

SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT

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.

Beneath the Surface

Posted on by Brandon Reynolds

BENEATH THE SURFACE

The quiet work of watchdogging Wyoming’s water

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.

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