Client: Wyoming Water Development Commission
Location: North Platte River Drainage
Project Overview: Trihydro contracted with the Wyoming Water Development Commission in 2002 to complete a groundwater assessment study of the North Platte River Drainage. The purpose of the study is to identify the feasibility and cost for developing new groundwater supply sources that may be used to provide augmentation water to the North Platte River.

In November 2001, the Supreme Court adopted a joint settlement agreement between Wyoming and Nebraska that resolved almost 15 years of litigation over the waters of the North Platte River drainage. This agreement provides that Wyoming replace depletions to the flow of the river associated with irrigation diversions from groundwater wells, tributaries and drains with a priority date after 1945 in an area downstream from the Whalen Diversion Dam, near Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Trihydro is charged with identifying water resources that may be developed as a source of augmentation water to replace these depletions.

An important criterion for identifying prospective groundwater supplies is that new groundwater resources must not be “hydrologically connected” to the surface water resources in the basin. Technical work on this project must satisfy a unique legal definition for hydrologic connection. The WWDC selected Trihydro to complete this study based on our extensive experience in the practices of hydrogeology, hydrology, water rights, and water supply engineering.