GREEN RIVER - The Green River in western Wyoming may be the answer to the North Platte River Basin's ongoing water woes, state officials believe.

But first, state water officials must determine if it is feasible to move water from the Green River to the North Platte by pipeline and figure out how many millions of dollars such a project might cost.

However, some southwestern Wyoming residents have panned the idea and questioned the benefits of taking western Wyoming water and transporting it to eastern Wyoming.

Wyoming Water Development Office Director Mike Besson said his agency have undertaken an in-house analysis to examine the possibility of transporting water from surplus areas like the Green River Basin to areas in need of additional water, such as the North Platte River Basin.

"It's time to talk about (transbasin diversion)," Besson said in an interview Tuesday.

"We do have an ongoing issue in the Platte River Basin where we're trying to do everything we can - through conservation and additional development of water supplies - to meet the needs over there," he said. "This is really long range, but it's something we should look at."

Besson said Wyoming's remaining and unused Upper Colorado River Compact entitlement is estimated to range from 250,000 to 300,000 acre-feet of water annually.

The North Platte River Basin, on the other hand, is an "over-appropriated basin" that experiences water shortages almost every year. He said groundwater development alone may not be enough to provide that part of the state with assurances that water will be available when needed.

But Rock Springs resident and Western Wyoming College geology teacher Charles Love wondered if the state was just "working hard to grease the squeaky wheel of eastern Wyoming's water shortages" at the expense of southwestern Wyoming's future.

Love said the state needs to address the cost-benefit ratio before committing any taxpayers' dollars to a diversion project. He said any benefits to Wyoming should be easily demonstrated if the project if feasible.

"If this is going to go for agriculture, then tell me how the state coffers are ever going to pay back the cost of the pipeline from the profits … and pay for any future (water) development in southwest Wyoming," he said. "I don't see how adding 60,000 acre-feet of water to the North Platte will bring in enough agricultural revenue to the state to justify the incredible expenditure and long-term environmental alteration.

"This sounds more like promotion … than feasibility," he said.

According to Besson, early estimates show it could cost upwards of $300 million for some sort of pipeline/diversion project from the Green to the North Platte. "We don't know for sure… that's what we're trying to determine in the study."

Besson added that one factor spurring Wyoming officials to use the Upper Colorado River Compact water it is entitled to is that Utah has made inquires about using Green River waters stored in Wyoming reservoirs.

"One big stimulus for doing this comes from Utah … which is looking at taking an additional 60,000 acre-feet of water either from the Fontenelle Reservoir or Flaming Gorge Reservoir," he said. Both reservoirs are on the Green River in southwestern Wyoming.

The state is entitled to use 125,000 acre-feet each year from Fontenelle Reservoir, he noted, but only allocates about 35,000 acre-feet to users each year.

"So we've got about 90,000 acre-feet to market just out of Fontenelle," Besson said. "I worry about what would happen if we let Utah take 60,000 acre-feet out of the Green River and the state's ability to use our water… to beneficial purposes for Wyoming."

Besson said Water Development Office engineers and planners are analyzing several transbasin diversion proposals aimed at bringing approximately 30,000 to 50,000 acre-feet of the unused Green River water to the North Platte Basin.

The analysis should be ready for review by the Wyoming Water Development Commission later this year. Besson said if sufficient interest exists and water users in the Green River Basin are "receptive" to the concept - and if approved by the WWDC and the Legislature - the analysis would be followed by a Level II Study to further screen alternatives.

One alternative currently being analyzed would divert water from the Little Sandy River, and possibly from the East Fork of the New Fork River, to the Sweetwater River.

Other options include pumping water from Fontenelle Reservoir to the Sweetwater River and from the Green River below the city of Green River to a site on the North Platte near Rawlins.

Besson said the adverse drought-related consequences experienced by North Platte River Basin water users, the potential for increased demand for water relative to Platte River endangered species issues, and Wyoming's water replacement obligations pursuant to the recent settlement of the Nebraska vs. Wyoming lawsuit all provided additional incentives for the analysis.

He said several North Platte River Basin communities have expressed interest recently in augmenting their water supplies. Besson said without question, additional water supplies must be developed to maintain the current level of water use and to allow for growth and development in the basin.

However, Ann Strand, a member of the Green River Basin Advisory Group, which helped the state draft a water management plan for the Green River Basin, said the state should meet the needs of ranchers and other water users in the basin before diverting water to the North Platte.

She added that a three-county joint powers water board was recently formed to explore the possibility of increasing water storage in the basin.

Strand said the board - which includes representatives from Sweetwater, Lincoln and Sublette counties - should be allowed to begin its planned feasibility study prior to any transbasin diversion project by the state.

Besson noted that Wyoming law requires the state to mitigate any impacts from transbasin diversion projects, which was done for the recently-completed High Savory Dam project on the Little Snake River.

"Certainly we wouldn't take water out of that Upper Green River Basin unless we could somehow address the shortages (caused) by taking the water," he said. "There's plenty of water in the basin … it's just that we would have to structure this (proposal) so that if it was to go anywhere, it wouldn't cause anybody injury."