State pauses $44M dam funding request

Wyoming state water officials postponed a funding request for the Alkali Creek Dam and reservoir on Thursday, delaying a project that has divided a northern Wyoming community for years.

The Select Water Committee and the Wyoming Water Development Commission paused the Nowood Watershed Improvement District's bid for $44 million to complete the construction. The panels asked the district and five local landowners to negotiate further over property easements. The next scheduled review for the issue is December 17.

The district also requested a time extension to finish the project, which now carries an estimated total cost of $103.4 million. The joint boards voted to pause the request without any dissent from the members present at the meeting in Casper.

Michelle Hamilton, a landowner near Hyattville, provided testimony describing the financial and personal stress her family has faced while the district sought to condemn easements across her property. Hamilton said the project cost her family financially, professionally, and personally. She described the condemnation process as contrary to the local way of handling property disputes.

A member of the water commission noted that the goal was not to tear communities apart. The prospect of the district taking private property to finish the work left state officials cautious about moving forward immediately.

This decision follows a November 3 election in Big Horn and Washakie counties that maintained a rural water board majority favoring the use of eminent domain. Ashley Coenen, district manager for the South Big Horn Conservation District in Greybull, confirmed the results in an email.

Todd Jones, who opposes the district's plans for eminent domain, won the most votes with 182 and will replace Martin Mercer on the board. Incumbents Mitch Vigil and John Joyce received 180 and 177 votes, respectively, securing their positions.

Mercer, who sold the district the land for the dam, received 158 votes. Doug Hamilton and Tom Shirran, both of whom are targeted in the eminent domain effort, received 152 and 151 votes, respectively. Conservation districts in the area mailed 453 ballots for the election.

The district offered the five landowners a total of $97,000 for right-of-way easements covering 35 acres. Water district letters stated that condemnation would proceed if the landowners did not accept the offers. Some of the property targeted for easements would be flooded by the reservoir, while other rights of way are needed for the Anita Ditch.

The proposed dam is an earth embankment 100 feet high and half a mile long. The resulting reservoir would cover 312 acres when full, providing late-season irrigation for about 33 families in eight out of 10 years.