Panel advances $8 million statewide study of stormwater and wastewater infrastructure

The Select Water Committee on a voice vote advanced Senate File 69, a bill that would fund a statewide inventory and mapping of municipal drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure with an $8 million appropriation.

Senator Boner, who sponsored the bill, told the committee the measure expands pilot work and responds to decades of underinvestment: "It's an $8 million appropriation, uh, from SIPA currently," he said, adding the goal is to "develop a list of all the infrastructure" so the state and municipalities can plan and prioritize upgrades.

Why it matters: lawmakers and agency officials said many small towns lack up-to-date records of buried systems and limited local capacity makes planning and securing federal funds difficult. Jennifer Ziggment, water quality division administrator at the Wyoming DEQ, described the pilot the agency ran in six communities and the online GIS-based asset-management platform staff used to map valves, estimate costs and run financial scenarios. "One of the most important things we can do to help Wyoming make sure it can deliver safe drinking water and effectively treat our sewage is to do this first step which is develop this inventory and mapping effort," Ziggment said.

Committee members pressed for clarity on several points: Senator Pearson asked how the $8 million was calculated; sponsors said the figure was extrapolated from contractor estimates and pilot costs and that agencies (DEQ and the Office of State Lands and Investments) helped develop it. Members also discussed whether the bill should include a hard deadline for completion; DEQ and others said the statewide effort could be completed in the four-year window contemplated by the bill if sufficiently resourced, but members suggested earlier interim reporting or an explicit cap on the timeline.

Support: testimony from the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation and the Associated General Contractors emphasized that aging systems put public health and infrastructure at risk and that a consistent statewide inventory would improve eligibility and competitiveness for federal funding.

Vote and next steps: The committee voted on Senate File 69 by roll call; Senators KGO, Love, Mchuan, Pearson and the chairman voted in favor (five 'I' votes), and the measure advanced to the next stage.

The bill directs participating agencies to build on existing pilot work, gather data statewide and report back with information that can be used to shape financing and policy choices; it does not transfer operational responsibility for systems from municipalities to the state.