SUBLETTE COUNTY – The dire need for sufficient irrigation water and its efficient delivery grow more pressing across the West and Wyoming as drought deepens.

The same is true in Sublette County, with its mountain ranges holding headwaters for our more reliable rivers that flow through irrigation ditches and sprinklers to beyond the county line.

Irrigation water rights holders in the Hoback Basin and Boulder Creek are positioned to take advantage of government funds and grants to study and upgrade watersheds and drainages on a smaller scale – down to mapping headgates, ditches and diversions.

In Hoback Basin, landowners are invited to submit small-water irrigation projects to improve efficiency like replacing headgates, installing culverts or stock tanks, using solar-powered pumps or stopping erosion. Most do not require environmental analyses.

In the Boulder Creek drainage, the Boulder Irrigation District is using “free money” to improve its diversion, the 14.7-mile canal and ditches that serve its members. Currently, canal overflows have flooded several thousand acres. That project is more complex, requiring an environmental assessment.

Hoback Watershed

The Hoback River begins high in the Wyoming Range and is one of the last watersheds to be studied, according to Rio Verde Engineering’s Mike Jackson.

On June 14 at the Bondurant Fire Hall, Jackson and Sublette County Conservation District Manager Mike Henn introduced water officials and specialists involved in the tri-county Hoback Watershed Study sponsored by Sublette, Teton and Lincoln conservation districts.

In the past, small-water projects were held back until a watershed study was completed. Now starting the process frees up small-water project funding. A small-water project could apply to surface, live or ground water to develop a reservoir, wells, pipelines or other conveyances, springs, windmills and wetlands, according to Jackson.

Key agencies are the Wyoming Water Development Commission for the detailed Hoback watershed study and Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for a pollution study at Hoback Junction and water-quality south into Lincoln County.

Funding is open for anyone with a Hoback Basin water right and in certain cases for upgrades on public land. Henn said he’d like 50 or so small-water project applications by Nov. 1 to submit to the WWDC.

WWDC’s Mabel Jones, Henn and Jackson urged those present to spread the word about small-project funds that are available with an in-kind match, which could be cash, personal time and labor or equipment rental.

“This is a real opportunity for landowners and land managers to get some water projects funded through our office,” Jones said.

The watershed study will organize existing data about its natural and manmade characteristics on a very minute scale – while helping landowners with water rights bring as many applications as possible to the WWDC’s Small Water Project Program.

“Anything to do with water storage (such as reservoirs or stock tanks) is fair game,” Jackson said.

Consultants Stantec and Alden Environmental will collate data on existing conditions and inventory physical, biological and human-influenced systems. Past wildfires have changed the vegetation, landscape and runoff. Streambeds might need stabilizing. Irrigation equipment might need repair or replacement.

“The state is trying to get a mainframe of data to identify gaps,” said Skylor Wade of Stantec. “We want to gather all the information (about the Hoback Watershed) that’s out there.”

Historic information also extends to climate zones, surface soils, geologic hazards, migration corridor, fisheries, threatened species and critical and crucial habitats.

“Here, for example, our native Snake River cutthroat are a priority,” said Alden’s Brian Remlinger.

Henn will document the basin’s water rights and conveyance systems – some a century old.

Interested Hoback water-rights holders can contact SCCD’s Mike Henn at mhenn@sublettecd.com and Rio Verde’s Mike Jackson at mjackson@rioverdeengineering.com to learn more about small-water project applications.

Boulder Creek Watershed Plan

The Boulder Irrigation District called a public scoping meeting on June 9 at the Boulder Community Center. A dozen or so ranchers met with the board, JUB Engineers and USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service staff.

The district has 62 water-rights holders who irrigate 10,587 acres. The proposed project “would improve irrigation water reliability … and restore the usefulness of 3,219 acres of flooded agricultural lands.”

The issue is plenty of irrigation water that needs to be controlled.

NRCS is giving the district a $650,000 grant for JUB to analyze and engineer the feasibility of improving the Boulder Canal’s infrastructure along a 14.7-mile stretch, perhaps lining all or parts of it and upgrading an old canal siphon, headgates and canal diversion, according to the NRCS’s public scoping notice.

Shotcrete and EPDM lining are the preferred materials, according to JUB’s Brian Deeter, and they could be installed in winter without affecting any irrigation seasons.

On the wish list is a SCADA-controlled flow-measuring station to improve efficiency.

“This is the best-case scenario,” Deeter said, estimating total construction at $21 million. “Sometimes pieces drop out. … The most expensive portion would be lining the canal from the diversion down to the highway – 14 miles.”

Walt Bousman said, “Some places along the canal seep really bad. Look at those sections first – look at the fields that are inundated.”

The current “high-hazard” diversion would be rehabilitated; building a dam is not included in this proposal, according to NRCS engineer Shawn Follum.

Follum will review JUB’s draft designs; construction might not start for two to three years.

Irrigators there expressed “sticker shock” at the pricetag, asking about funding options. The district is requesting a 75-percent federal grant from the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act. The 25-percent match might come from the Wyoming Water Development Commission or other grants, Deeter said.

Members there emphasized the district’s lack of interest in a large loan but briefly discussed rate increases.

For information on the Boulder Creek Watershed Plan Environmental Assessment, go to www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/wy/home/.

The deadline for public scoping comments is July 9. Submit comments or questions to Elizabeth Spaulding, The Langdon Group, at 208-685-9361 or bouldercreek@WYWatershed.com.