JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Saturday, August 27, 2005 12:00 am
KEMMERER - Tucked in a sagebrush-strewn canyon a few miles north of Kemmerer in Lincoln County, Lake Viva Naughton is one of Wyoming's premier fishing lakes.
Created nearly a half-century ago, the reservoir also provides much-needed water for irrigators in western Wyoming and meets the municipal needs of small communities such as Kemmerer, Diamondville and Granger.
Officials in those towns face increasing infrastructure pressures from nearby oil and gas field development, and they predict continued population growth - which means eventually they'll need more water to consume.
The Wyoming Water Development Commission is looking at the Viva Naughton reservoir and other two potential reservoir sites - located in the surrounding tributaries along the Hams Fork River - as sites that might be used to increase water storage capacity in the region.
Viva Naughton has a permitted total capacity of 45,300 acre feet of water, but five years of drought have left ranchers with low water levels for irrigation in western Wyoming, water commission consultant Debra Miller told lawmakers and a various water officials during a tour of the Upper Green River Basin Thursday.
"The Hams Fork shortages needs to be addressed … Water shortages do exist, especially for irrigators," Miller said.
With legislative funding, Kleinfelder Inc. is working on a report that evaluates the possible development of new reservoir storage in the Green River Basin. The state is considering a variety of dam and reservoir sites throughout the basin, including Viva Naughton.
Miller said a study team looked at past water studies dating back to the 1970s and identified three alternatives for further study. They include increasing storage at Viva Naughton; and the construction of canals, dams and a reservoir in the Dempsey Basin and on Willow Creek.
"We'll see which one looks the most permittable to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," she said.
All three sites would provide about 35,000 to 40,000 acre feet of water storage, according to study estimates.
* The first alternative is to raise the existing earthen embankment dam at Viva Naughton by about 24 feet.
Miller said the work would include modifications to the current outlet and spillway and the construction of a new emergency spillway on one abutment. Total project cost would be about $36 million.
Miller said raising the Viva Naughton dam would inundate about 4,000 more acres of land at the north end of the reservoir, including about 300 acres of wetlands. "It's a pretty lush, green area upstream, and it's got some areas of prime moose habitat," she said.
Under Corps of Engineers regulations, about two acres of new wetlands would have to be created to mitigate the loss of every one acre of wetlands from the project, she predicted.
* The second proposal would create a new dam and reservoir in the Dempsey Basin drainage. The basin is located on the west side of the reservoir near what's known as Pink Hill. The dam would be designed as a zoned earth embankment structure and would be about 82 feet in height.
The "off-channel" reservoir would be fed by a six-mile-long diversion canal that would draw water from the main stem of the Hams Fork, according to plans. There are few impacts to wetland areas, Miller said, but the off-channel site "adds to the complexity and brings some design issues."
Miller said the Dimply Basin site project would cost about $37 million to develop.
* The third alternative would be construction of a new off-channel dam and reservoir within the Willow Creek drainage at the south end of the Viva Naughton reservoir.
A 10-mile-long water diversion canal would feed the reservoir. Miller said there are several huge power lines that sit in the middle of the reservoir site that would have to be relocated. And the old but now-defunct Gomer coal mine located underneath a portion of the reservoir would also have to be taken into consideration.
The Willow Creek project comes with an approximately $37 million price tag.
Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@trib.com.