Joint powers water board hears of potential concerns regarding application for level 2 studies

At the April 20 Hot Springs County Rural Water Joint Powers Board meeting (HSCRWJPB), Chairman Tom Ryan and board members mostly handled procedural matters that included the by-laws approval, bank account selection, a budget discussion, the approval of their attorney Virgil Kinnaird’s invoice, and a discussion of their record retention.

After these matters, Chairman Ryan held a discussion via speaker phone with George Moser, who is a project manager and geologist at the Wyoming Water Development Office and supports their Commission working on Level 2 studies. 

During the meeting, HSCRWJPB board member Tony Basko, who serves on the Owl Creek Water District Board explained that they are seeking to drill water as part of their “fiducial responsibility” to their members. The Owl Creek Water District already had submitted a Level 2 Study application for drilling water on Yankee Dome prior to the reconvening of the HSCRWJPB, which occurred a couple months ago.

Basko also said the HSCRWJPB Level 2 application is of higher priority and they would withdraw the Owl Creek application to prevent sabotaging the HSCRWJPB’s application if necessary. Basko added that Owl Creek Water District and the HSCRWJPB, they are unified and “150% behind this.” 

During the call, Moser brought up concerns about the HSCRWJPB’s application for their Level 2 studies to potentially drill for water on Lysite Mountain.

Moser said, “I personally want to do well-drilling projects. And we have drilled wells over time under Level 2 studies. As a matter of fact, folks already know that the Buffalo Creek well was drilled about southeast of town there as part of a Level 2 study for Bighorn Regional. The Commission has been giving me a lot of pressure lately about wells that were drilled under the program and haven’t been acquired by any project sponsor. So, I think there is a little bit of room for concern with the two competing applications or the Commission thinking, ‘Well, gosh, what do we do here? Do we decide to embrace both of these applications? Do we decide that maybe only move forward with one of them or?’… My worst fear is that the Commission kind of thinks, ‘Well, what’s going on with this well that was already drilled for Big Horn Regional looking for a southern source of supply?’ and they get kind of crazy and say ‘Well, you know what, there’s already a well there so we think let’s just table both of these.’ That’s not something personally that I want but it is a piece that sits out there. And so I’m hoping to convey a little bit of the temperature of the Commission and the kind of questions they’ve been asking over the last couple of months.

Moser said that the Commission will meet on May 11 to decide which Level 2 study applications they will award.

Chairman Ryan thanked Moser for his candidness and said, “We’ll just plan on going down on the 11th and visiting with them and see where that takes us.”