Public water systems have a lot to do with how residential developments take shape in Wyoming, producing either sprawl or "smart growth"

Don McLeod, a professor at the University of Wyoming's Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, spoke Friday about an ongoing research project in his department, focused on a Sheridan water project.

During the 1989 Legislative session, the Sheridan Area Water Supply Joint Powers Board requested, and the legislature approved, an appropriation of $15.5 million to enlarge Twin Lakes Reservoir and majorwater transmission facilities.

Before the new pipeline, more than 1,000 homes in Little Goose Valley and more than 200 in Big Goose depended on shallow, low-quality wells. Once the pipeline was in place, housing development increased by at least 50 percent, they said.

The construction of a water pipeline along the Big Goose Creek into Sheridan also encouraged rural housing along the pipeline.

McLeod, his fellow economists and Scott Lieske of the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center have been studying that project and how decisions were made, in order to help Wyoming leaders handle future projects.

The pipeline has created unintended rural sprawl, along with an overabundance of septic systems that could threaten local groundwater, he said.

McLeod and his peers were also studying alternative pipeline routes and what impact those routes might have on wildlife such as turkeys, ducks, antelope and deer species.

John Woodward, director of the Lincoln County Office of Planning and Development, spoke at length about Star Valley's rapid growth, driven by commuters who can't afford to live and work in Jackson Hole, as well as by coal and natural gas jobs in southern Lincoln County.

Star Valley, surrounded by national forests, has 18 public water supply systems, four municipalities and seven water improvement districts, with several new subdivisions added each year, he said.

Large land holdings (often dairy farms) have been divided again and again through generations -- so much so that only 30 Star Valley landowners have more than 70 acres each, Woodward said.

Such rapid growth in Star Valley has prompted the Wyoming Water Development Commission and Lincoln County to work toward water systems that can encourage high-density growth in some areas and low or no growth in others, he said.

Some of the tools under consideration by planners and county officials include conservation easements; flood plains that are protected from development; impact fees paid by developers; and incentives for developers to cluster development near existing services and roads.