2021 Year in Review: Wind and Water
The Laramie Reporter looks back at 2021. This is the first entry in a four-part series.
Albany County’s natural resources were battlegrounds this year. As the University of Wyoming and the city of Laramie sparred over water rights, the Albany County Commissioners capped off a multi-year debate about aquifer protection by passing stricter regulations for the land above the Casper Aquifer.
The commissioners also approved a massive wind farm for the south of the county — a project that drew the ire of landowners in the area seeking to protect their viewsheds.
Water Wars
The University of Wyoming won the right this year to drill its own wells and operate its own water system independent of the city in which the campus resides.
Laramie did not support this plan and in fact vehemently opposed it.
UW is the city’s largest water customer, despite receiving a significant discount.
"It's not because I'm hot to trot to have a big agency fight with the University of Wyoming. That's dumb. I want to do as little of that as possible," Mayor Paul Weaver said. "It's that I don't think it's fair for our constituents, Laramie ratepayers, to have to deal with that double dip."
The Laramie City Council and city staff argued that watering UW’s golf course is actually beneficial for the city, as it “flushes” the water system.
Without the responsibility to water UW’s golf course, the city will have to flush its own sewer system by regularly opening water hydrants and letting them run. That takes city staff and resources away from other projects, the city argued.
But the State Legislature passed a bill explicitly giving UW control of its water system. Gov. Gordon signed the bill into law, securing UW’s victory in its struggle with the city.
But Gordon wasn’t happy about it and expressed frustration that the local fight got all the way to the legislature and his office.
"My decision to sign this bill into law is simply an outgrowth of selecting the best outcome out of a suite of poor options," he wrote.
Aquifer Protection
The fate of the Casper Aquifer has been a point of contention in Albany County for years. The aquifer is the city of Laramie’s main source of drinking water, and activists argued that new regulations were necessary to protect that source.
Those activists secured a victory this year when Albany County Commissioners passed stricter regulations regarding development on the land above the underwater reservoir.
Although 13 percent of the aquifer is protected underneath the Pilot Hill Recreation Area, the rest is enveloped by residential, municipal or agricultural lots.
The new regulations took the form of amendments to the already extant Aquifer Protection Plan. Those amendments established a minimum lot size of 35 acres for future development with a maximum of one dwelling for smaller sites. The amendments also changed septic requirements and allowances. The additions were entirely new to the aquifer protection plan, which had not addressed these issues previously.
That meeting was heated, as both advocates for and against greater regulation argued that the other side was using faulty science. One commissioner ultimately stormed out of the meeting — to “make love” to his wife — and the amendments passed on a 2-0 vote.
“I would like to thank you all for having the decorum that this commission could not muster,” Commission Chair Pete Gosar said.
Here, we must scrabble for wind power
Another long-standing county fight also met its conclusion in 2021. The Rail Tie Wind Project has secured local and state approval, and now needs only federal approval to begin construction.
The proposed Rail Tie Wind Project would be built on 26,000 acres of land around Tie Siding south of Laramie. It would produce about 500 megawatts.
But several residents in the area objected, claiming the project would “forever ruin” their viewsheds, while impacting wildlife and cultural resources, such as the Ames Monument.
The movement was well-funded, taking out billboards, hiring a lawyer to represent local landowners collectively and mailing postcards. Those postcards, like much of the debate surrounding wind development in Albany County, were rife with misinformation.
Those opposed to the wind project cited false or misleading information about wind turbine efficiency and impacts on wildlife. The postcards even directed residents to google “What’s wrong with wind & solar - Prager” — a search that will take one to PragerU, a significant online source of misinformation about climate change and renewable energy, among other topics.
In January, ConnectGen won approval for the parts of the project that will be built on state land. In March, the commissioners updated their wind siting regulations at the behest of the activists seeking to stop Rail Tie. Among other changes, the regulations require more detailed studies on a project’s “socio-economic” impacts.
In June, factions both for and against Rail Tie filled the Albany County Courthouse, debating the issue for five hours. The Rail Tie Project had support from both progressives seeking action on climate change and right-wing Republicans who argued the government should not stand in the way of business. Both groups of supporters were also interested in the potentially substantial amount of tax revenue the county would see from the project.
In July, the commissioners gathered to decide on the project and ultimately approved it in a unanimous vote. Commissioner Heber Richardson, the commission’s sole Republican, said it was not the county’s place to put additional restrictions on a firm looking to set up shop in Albany County. Commission Chair Pete Gosar made ConnectGen promise to be “good neighbors” and to go above and beyond the letter of the regulations.
The world is starting to feel the effects of the climate crisis, as it makes tropical storms fiercer, fires larger, heatwaves more deadly — and all of these extreme weather events more frequent.
"While I sympathize with those residents whose views will be affected, my primary concern is ultimately about renewable energy and the urgent need to take some serious steps to address climate change," Ibarra said. "We must demonstrate to the next generation that we are concerned about the environmental harm we have created."
The commissioners are now considering a separate wind project, one that would place more than 100 turbines on more than 32,000 acres of land in the north of the county and be placed among other existing wind farms.
As in his articles regarding rental property regulation, Jeff displays egregious biases in this piece. The fact is that, with so much inexpensive land and so much wind in Wyoming, there was no reason to allow a massive wind farm in a location where it would destroy the scenic character of one of the region's most beautiful highways as well as residents' investments in their homes - for many, their life's savings. Permitting the "Rail Tie" project to proceed in that particular location rather than another, simply because it was financially convenient to one particular developer, was a sop to a large, out-of-state corporation, not a meaningful step to address climate change. The fact that wind farms are being developed in other parts of the county where they do not have such negative impacts demonstrates that one need not have been authorized in the area south of Laramie.