Agencies discuss forming Joint Powers Water District

On January 17 the Hot Springs County Commissioners held an informal discussion with various entities to organize a Joint Powers Water District potentially. Representatives from the Town of Thermopolis, Owl Creek Water District, South Thermopolis Water & Sewer District, and Red Lane were present. East Thermopolis and Lucerne were invited but were not able to attend.

Commission Chairman Tom Ryan provided some history for the group discussion saying, “In 2018, we started down this path. We had a level two study done to look at drilling a well on Lysite mountain and bringing water for all the users of Hot Springs County. We started a little bit with Big Horn Regional. We talked to them and they were receptive to seeing a redundant source of water. I don’t know that they felt like they had enough volume to supply the entire southern end of the basin. We had a level two study done from Dowl. I thought the numbers were really good. We had a meeting with the Town of Thermopolis in 2018. The town opted to not be any part of it. We had already gone through the process and formed a Joint Powers Board. We all signed resolutions and were putting it all together, then it just fell flat.”

Ryan continued and said, “Neil Miller, who was the chairman of the South Thermopolis Water District, had really done all the legwork. He put the whole thing together. I visited him the other day. We had some questions about some of the work that he’d done.”

Ryan added, “We have a new mayor and some new players for the town so we asked, would you be interested in looking at resurrecting this? They were in agreement. The current Joint Powers Board is South Thermopolis, Owl Creek, and Lucerne, East Thermopolis and the county. The county really doesn’t have a dog in the fight per se. We don’t have any users. We just like to see affordable good water to all the residents in Hot Springs County, including the Town of Thermopolis. That was how we got into the mix to start with.”

Commission Chairman Ryan added that the County has budgeted about $5,000 for legal fees to address the group’s efforts. Ryan also said if everyone showed interest in resurrecting the joint powers board that he would like to have the Town of Thermopolis to have two seats on the board to represent their users. According to Ryan, for their numbers to work, it would require the Town’s participation. He also noted that if the Town “is going to spend $10 million on doing a water plant, it looks to me it would be good business to maybe look at bringing other facilities, a different source of water.”

Ryan also explained that Big Horn Regional is still interested in finding a source of water for Hot Springs County and that a HSC Joint Powers Water District would be the entity needed to have the various small county water districts come under. The new joint powers district would represent all of them to Big Horn Regional.

Ryan asked newly elected Town of Thermopolis Mayor Adam Estenson for his comments. Estenson said, “I campaigned on water being part of why I was running for mayor, and so I want to continue that conversation. At the end of the day, all these things come down to money. I think we all can agree to that. And if it shows light that this isn’t a good project for the Town of Thermopolis, I want the town to still be involved in the conversation because I imagine it’s not just as easy as going to turn off the spigot to the other districts. That being said though, I want to move this forward and I want to have dialog back and forth and I’ve been saying all along, I want to produce a number that tells us what Mr. and Mrs. Nussbaum on Clark Street are going to pay for water, and that’s what I want as mayor.”

The conversation then continued that there could be federal funding for money, such as from Covid grants, that could be used to pay their interests because they are tied to water. Ryan noted that East Thermopolis could be a candidate because of its economic status.

Ryan said he wondered about “dusting off” the Level 2 study that Dowl did and see if they can use it for this next venture. 

Town of Thermopolis Engineer Heath Overfield said, “To get back to your original comments about this group and how it moves forward, I spent a lot of time with the new mayor last week just kind of giving them our background as far as what we do for the town and what we’re asked to do, as well as my understanding of the town’s position on the regional water and how we got to where we are today, starting in the early 2000s. I think the first hurdle to overcome is looking at the study that was done for the town, the master plan update in 2016, and comparing it to what was done with the regional system in 2018. You mentioned the water plan and I think the town is quickly approaching a decision point. In our study we put a ten-year life on the water plan. That was in 2016. So four years from then we figured some major upgrades or replacement would likely have to be considered.” 

Overfield continued and said, “Wyoming Water Development Commission does not fund surface treatment plants. So if that were to be the town’s decision to move forward with the replacement plant, they’d be looking at USDA funding and they’d be looking at paying for half of that either through a loan or other reserves. So you’re looking at a $6 million cost. If you look at the 2018 study on the Lysite mountain and pipeline regional build-out, that was like a $35 million project, maybe 80% funded if we can access some of these other grant funds from USDA as well as the 67% money from water development. The town’s commitment to that project was about $6 million in 2018. So would it make sense to spend $6 million on a new surface treatment plant that may or may not meet EPA standards five years from now? Or does the town look at going forward with this regional system and spending the same amount of money on a groundwater source that is potentially much more reliable and much less regulated? You’ll have much less chance of having regulatory issues. I think that this is a good time for the town to investigate that well and figure out if that source exists because that’s the first question that has to be answered. Is there a source and is the water quality and the water quantity enough so we can build a sound system and sustain future growth for 20, 30, 50 years?”

Overfiend then explained why a well wasn’t drilled earlier in 2018. In his investigation, Overfield learned there were two reasons. He said one was that the state was hesitant to spend more money on this system because the Town of Thermopolis was not going to be involved. Second, the state looked at other higher-priority items for the northern regional system at that time.

Ryan then said, “If everybody is receptive, then I think we get to working on letting the Joint Powers Board get reorganized and start having meetings and start developing the plan based on that group.”

Later in the meeting, Mayor Estenson said, “One thing that I have promised the town council is that I will not allow them to be blindsided and that’s why council member John Dorman Sr. is here. I think I’ll have to get a pulse on this to wait until our first February meeting to take any action. I’d like to be able to present the council with a well-formed thought.”

The group’s next meeting will be on February 9 at 5 p.m. at the Annex building to formally discuss the agreements and to potentially form a joint powers water district.