Wyoming Legislature Convenes 2002 Session

by Michele Barlow

Governor Joe & His Yellow Paint

In 1959, Wyoming Governor Joe Hickey and legislators from both parties became embroiled in a states-rights battle over the color of stripes on state highways that received federal repair and construction funds. Wyoming citizens believed that yellow stripes were priceless during snowstorms, but the federal highway administrator advised the governor to comply with federal standards and use white paint instead.

According to historian T.A. Larson, "The 1959 session was more than ordinarily frustrating. Visitors, not House members, were guilty of moving a mounted buffalo from the capitol rotunda to the front lawn. To entertain the weary legislators at midnight, House employees sang "The Yellow Stripe Blues" to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

WOC executive director Dan Heilig and I will soon follow hundreds of miles of road stripes to Cheyenne for another wild and woolly legislative session.

The 2002 Session

On February 11, the Wyoming Legislature will convene for a combined budget and special session. This year, if our legislators are as energetic as they were during the 2000 budget session, they will consider more than 300 bills.

Important Environmental Bills

Among the legislation that will be debated during the session are four important bills that affect Wyoming's wildlife habitat, safe drinking water, coalbed methane taxes and water rights.

Wildlife Legacy Trust

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is confronting what it calls "a quiet crisis" in wildlife management. Increasing human development and activity are fragmenting critical wildlife habitat across the state, and livestock overgrazing on drought-afflicted rangelands is reducing forage for Wyoming's treasured big-game herds.

In the past, the department relied on revenues from hunters and anglers to fund habitat-protection projects. But hunting and fishing licenses no longer provide sufficient funding for these efforts. In response, a bill has been drafted to create a Wildlife Legacy Trust that would invest a small portion of funds generated each year from minerals production in Wyoming in a permanent fund to conserve and sustain Wyoming's wildlife.

Although we had not seen the bill as we went to press, we understand that the trust would invest $20 million over the next two decades to generate interest to fund non-game species management and habitat-protection programs and to work with communities and businesses to minimize human-wildlife conflicts. We anticipate that the bill's primary sponsor will be Rep. Fred Parady (R-Sweetwater). Until we see the bill, WOC can neither support nor oppose it.

Safe Drinking Water

Although the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is responsible for enforcing a number of federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, its track record on managing these programs is mixed, at best. HB 22, the Safe Drinking Water Act, sponsored by Rep. Roger Huckfeldt (R-Torrington), would give the Wyoming DEQ the legal authority to implement and enforce another federal law, the Safe Drinking Water Act, in our state. Since its passage in 1974, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been responsible for enforcing this law in Wyoming.

One of our nation's most important environmental laws, the Safe Water Drinking Act ensures that tap water in our homes, schools and businesses is clean and safe to drink. The impetus for HB 22 seems to be the ongoing dispute between the Town of Torrington and the EPA over what the agency believes are excessive and unsafe concentrations of nitrates in the town's drinking water. WOC opposes HB 22.

Coalbed Methane Tax Collection

In Wyoming, mineral taxpayers report the volume of production and its value, and calculate their own taxes - the "honor system." Severance taxes are paid to the state for the privilege of extracting a finite, non-renewable resource, and property taxes are paid to the county where the production occurred. To protect the public interest, the Department of Audit scrutinizes tax returns submitted by mineral producers.

Tax returns from coalbed methane (CBM) production reveal many discrepancies among producers regarding the point of valuation. The problem is producers' varying definitions of where CBM production ends and transportation begins.

To definitively answer this question and correct discrepancies in CBM tax collections, SF 9, Taxation-Point of Valuation for Coalbed Methane Gas, establishes the point of valuation for CBM at the inlet of the first gas compression plant designed to boost gas pressure to at least 600 pounds per square inch. The bill is sponsored by the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee. WOC supports SF 9.

Water Rights

Wyoming water law dates back to territorial days and is based on the doctrine of "prior appropriation." Under this doctrine, the first person to put water to beneficial use secures the "senior right" to that water. During times of drought or low flow, senior rights take priority over junior rights, potentially leaving those with junior rights without sufficient water.

In 1986, the legislature passed the Instream Flow Law that allowed the State of Wyoming to hold a water right for instream (water flow in a natural stream channel) fisheries purposes, while simultaneously protecting pre-existing water rights. In essence, the 1986 law recognizes instream flow for fisheries as a beneficial use. Today, instream flows benefit Wyoming's dedicated anglers and its thriving tourism industry.

Rural-to-urban migration within the state is increasing pressure on the existing uses of Wyoming's water. Furthermore, competing demands such as instream flow, water quality, crop irrigation and municipal uses may trigger a serious conversation among legislators about saving water in Wyoming.

SF 21, Water Rights - Change of Use, sponsored by Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander), authorizes a specific water-saving activity: "Temporary leasing or gifting of water for the purposes of enhancing in-stream flows," unless the State Engineer determines that such an action "would adversely affect other appropriators." Importantly, the bill clarifies that a temporary leasing or gifting of water (to a private interest, for example) does not constitute abandonment. WOC supports SF 21.