Alkali Creek Reservoir project receives continued funding, deadline extended

The Alkali Creek Reservoir received continued funding in this year’s construction Omnibus Water Bill. The project, nearly a decade in the works, has had its reversion date again extended by one year to July 1, 2027. 

John Joyce, president of the Nowood Watershed Improvement District that has sponsored the proposed Hyattville reservoir, stated in an interview last week that he did not think that would be enough time to complete construction on the project, with the Wyoming Water Development Office currently negotiating with holdout landowners in order to procure five outstanding easements and one land purchase that would allow construction to begin. Should construction begin, WWDO would still need to ask for further funding to complete it.

As proposed, the reservoir would provide 6,000 acre-feet of direct flow from Alkali Creek and diverted flows from Medicine Lodge and Paintrock creeks to about 33 irrigators. An additional 2,000 acre-feet would be managed by Game and Fish as a flatwater fishery with 900 acre-feet to be left for fish survival. 

The legislature maintained its allotted $59 million for the reservoir, which was originally proposed at $35 million in 2017 and has since doubled to tripled in price, with the most recent estimate at $80 million. State funding would cover all but $2.1 million, which would be leant to the NWID via a 50-year loan and paid off by irrigators at $24 per acre-foot. An estimated $8 million has already been fronted by the state for the project. 

“It is the intent of the legislature that no further time extensions shall be authorized for this project,” the water bill reads. Originally, the Senate had attempted to instate a July 1 deadline to acquire the necessary easements, which failed. 

NWID has previously stated that it will not use the power of eminent domain to procure the final easements necessary for the reservoir to progress. In this year’s water bill, legislators eliminated that power from the WWDO starting Jan. 1, 2027. 

“The Water Development Office and its consultant for the project continue to work toward determining the best approaches for easement acquisition with relevant landowners,” WWDO Director Jason Mead wrote in a statement last week. Recently, this has included offering to put the Anita Ditch in pipe and funding sprinklers for landowners. 

Joyce reiterated the NWID’s interest in the water storage project, adding that the Big Horn River watershed is one of the few left in the state with unallocated water rights. If that water isn’t stored, he explained, it will travel on to other states for their use and Wyoming may not be able to claim a right at some point. 

On whether or not a deadline was needed, Joyce said, “I think we’re making good faith attempts to satisfy the needs from landowners, and I don’t think it’s helpful having politicians involved in the process.”