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Committee unanimously approves bill to extend abandonment protections for water rights during long repairs
Summary
Senate File 80 would let owners of dams or diversion systems apply to the Board of Control for five-year extensions when necessary repairs or replacement prevent beneficial use; the committee passed the measure 9-0 after state engineers described aging infrastructure demands.
Senate File 80, introduced by Senator Sherry Steinmetz, passed the Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee by a 9–0 vote after testimony that the measure would protect water-right holders from forfeiture when aging dams, diversions or related infrastructure require extended repair or replacement time.
Steinmetz told the committee the bill adds a pathway under state water law that allows “the owner of a lawful dam or diversion system … to apply to the Board of Control … for an extension not to exceed 5 years within which to use water or reactivate use of water therefrom for the beneficial purposes for which it was appropriated.” The bill also allows repeated applications for additional extensions when repairs take longer than five years.
State Engineer Brandon Gephardt and Chris Brown, who supervises the water section in the Attorney General’s Office, supported the measure in committee. Gephardt described how large dam and diversion repairs can require lengthy planning, funding and permitting: “Some of these larger facilities … sometimes the planning, the funding, the construction, the permitting can take a while, usually more than 5 years to accomplish that.” Brown explained that the amendment ties existing abandonment and storage statutes to a circumstance in which a water right has been used but then cannot be used for a prolonged period due to physical infrastructure failure.
Committee members asked whether the bill would protect water-right holders from lawsuits or third-party abandonment petitions. Brown and Gephardt said the Board of Control would hear extension petitions and that a board finding granting an extension would prevent a state-initiated abandonment action on that right while the extension is in effect. Gephardt also noted the statute’s standing rules: a Wyoming water-right holder who is a junior appropriator has standing to bring an abandonment action under current law; the bill’s extension process would protect rights when the board grants relief.
Industry groups and local irrigation districts testified in favor. Keith Kennedy, on behalf of the Wyoming Association of Irrigation Districts, said permitting timeframes have increased and that federal requirements should not impair Wyoming water rights. The Wyoming Farm Bureau and the Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts also provided supporting testimony.
The committee voted 9–0 to pass the engrossed bill to the next step.
