On February 9, the Wyoming Legislature convenes a 22-day budget session. Budget sessions have one important constraint: non-budget bills must receive a 2/3 vote of approval in the chamber of origin simply to gain introduction. The upshot of the 2/3-vote rule is that many bills will die quickly before introduction, because legislators set rigid priorities in recognition of the short-lived session.

When it passed the Clean Water Act, Congress intended to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters and eliminate the discharge of pollutants into surface waters by 1985. To help achieve this goal, Congress established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. An NPDES permit is required for a discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States from “any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance,” such as a pipe, ditch, well or confined animal-feeding operation.

With the onset of rampant coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming’s NPDES program has suffered from problems related to public participation, data analysis and management, permitting, water-quality monitoring and inspection and enforcement. Notably, Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has essentially only one inspector to check on permit compliance for the entire Powder River Basin. Further, although we all pay fees for licenses to drive a car or hunt or fish, industry currently pays nothing for the right to pollute.

In November 2003, the legislature’s Joint Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Interim Committee approved a bill that establishes an NPDES permit fee system for surface-water quality monitoring, analysis, modeling and other non- operating costs. The bill requires the DEQ to assess a $100 annual fee for each active NPDES permit or authorization. The $1.4 million generated each year from these fees will be used to hire additional staff to deal with coalbed methane inspection, compliance, laboratory research and permitting.

WOC supports this important step towards providing critical funding for the NPDES program through a reasonable, fee-based system.

In many areas of Wyoming, the individual or entity that owns surface lands does not own the minerals beneath them. The most significant “split-estate” issues involve federal minerals underlying surface lands owned by private interests who commonly use these lands for farming or ranching. In the Powder River Basin, federally owned oil and gas resources underlie 40 percent of the region’s private surface lands.

In December 2003, the legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee approved a draft “Surface Owners Accommodation Act” which requires oil and gas companies to provide surface owners with a comprehensive development plan at least 60 days prior to drilling. The bill also requires companies to compensate surface owners for “reasonable” property damage, which could be measured by a loss of agricultural production or land value, among other factors. Finally, the bill requires companies to reclaim lands impacted by oil and gas development.

WOC supports this bill because it will help ensure that oil and gas resources are developed in a manner more sensitive to surface owners and development impacts to their lands.

Immediately following the legislature’s 2003 General Session, the Joint Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Interim Committee began studying Wyoming’s Instream Flow Law to determine whether it should be amended to augment water flows in natural stream channels while simultaneously protecting pre-existing water rights.

From April through October 2003, legislators considered four draft bills that would have allowed landowners to increase protections for fisheries, riparian habitat and water quality. Unfortunately, the interim committee failed to approve any of the bills, so instream flow legislation will not be debated during the budget session, unless individual legislators introduce such a bill.

On January 13, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) rejected Wyoming’s controversial dual-status wolf-management plan, which classifies wolves as predators subject to unregulated killing outside of national parks and adjoining wilderness areas. Legislators have indicated that they will introduce two bills during the session to bring the state’s wolf-management law into compliance with USFWS requirements for delisting.

Legislators listen closely to calls and messages from their constituents. Your active involvement can make a difference in the outcome of good and bad bills!

Use the following resources to stay informed about and voice your support for or opposition to bills being considered during the legislative session.