Oh water night

The old Wyoming adage “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting” seemed especially true during the August 12 meeting of the Encampment Town Council.

Both the Encampment Town Council and Encampment residents are preparing for the September 14 meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC), when the county commissioners will hold a public hearing on the highly debated Planned Unit Development (PUD) for Green Mountain at Brush Creek Ranch.

It wasn’t just Encampment’s source water which was a topic of discussion at the monthly council meeting. One member of the public questioned the governing body on the certifications of current town employees and the safety of the drinking water in Encampment.

Green Mountain PUD

One month prior, the council chambers at Encampment Town Hall were packed with concerned citizens before the Carbon County Planning Commission held a public hearing on July 12 and a continuation of the public hearing on July 26. On August 12, the council chambers were only slightly less crowded. Encampment resident Bob Herring, who was in attendance on July 8, returned to the chambers to read the governing body the objections and concerns he presented to the planning commission and would present to the BOCCC.

Chief among those concerns for Herring was whether or not the groundwater in Section 36 were hydrologically connected to the Upper North Platte River, “this being necessary to ensure that the cumulative impacts of the multiple, planned domestic wells here do not injure or impact downstream senior rights.”

According to the 2019 Encampment Source Water Protection Plan, developed with aid from the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems, the Town of Encampment’s water right dates back to July 23, 1900 and allows the municipality to divert six cubic feet per second for “municipal, mining and milling purposes within the corporate limits of the Town of Encampment.”

Herring also stated the Town of Encampment was under the Platte River Recovery Implementation Plan of 2007, which is supported by Encampment’s source water protection plan. According to the protection plan “this plan was developed to allow for Wyoming to develop and maintain its water rights while protecting habitat for endangered species and maintaining compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Therefore, municipalities with hydrological connections to the North Platte River must annually measure their water against thresholds quantified in the 1992-1996 period.”

Citing the Platte River Recovery Implementation Plan of 2007, Herring said the statement on page four of the PUD guide for Green Mountain at Brush Creek Ranch “is not true because Willow Creek and the North Fork of the Encampment (River) are within the boundaries of critical habitat for the endangered Plover and the Whooping Crane.”

Under section 2, subsection h which appears on page four of the PUD guide, it reads a search of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service I-Pac website showed four species of concern—the Canada Lynx, Piping Plover, Least Tern, Whooping Crane and Pallid Sturgeon— within the Medicine Bow Routt National Forest.

“The search results showed that Green Mountain is not within the boundaries of critical habitat for the Lynx, Plover or Whooping Crane,” read the PUD guide. “No critical habitat mapping exists for the Tern or Sturgeon.”

A search conducted by the Saratoga Sun on the website confirms this.

Another concern expressed by Herring was the contamination of the source water, whether through potential fuel spills from the on-site generators or from leach fields.

“The use of required generators could lead to the possibility of (a) large contamination of Willow Creek by whatever fuel is used to power the generators,” said Herring. “There are no plans to contain any gas, diesel or oil spills that may happen while maintaining or providing service. This would be a source of hazardous materials for water contamination.”

Herring also cited the building setbacks of 20 feet included within the PUD and the use of septic tanks and drain fields.

“This leaves a potential for the leach field to be within 20 feet of Willow Creek,” Herring said. “In turn making Willow Creek a direct line sewer to the North Fork, therefore contaminating the water of the Town of Encampment.”

During the July 26 special meeting in which the Green Mountain at Brush Creek Ranch PUD was passed (see “Green Mountain heads to to commissioners” on page 1 of the August 4 Saratoga Sun), county planning and zoning staff amended the PUD which would require Brush Creek Ranch to submit a Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) within 180 days of the PUD being adopted. The amendment stated “the water quality monitoring project will be ongoing”.

That language, however, was removed prior to the PUD being sent to the BOCCC and the deadline of within 180 days was amended to before a building permit was issued. Those changes came following protest from Brush Creek Ranch as they stated the 180 days was not realistic and water quality monitoring being ongoing was vague.

Herring concluded his address to the council by stating he would request the county commissioners deny the PUD until it could be rewritten.

Following Herring was Bob Kelley, who co-owns Chez Booze with his wife, Maggie. While Herring’s concerns were more specific, Kelley’s were more broad as he spoke about source water protection in general. In regards to the PUD, he requested the Encampment Town Council hold a workshop with the local planning commission, the Saratoga-Encampment-Rawlins Conservation District and the Wyoming Rural Water Association.

Asking if the steering committee which developed the 2019 Encampment Source Water Protection Plan was still intact, Kelley told the governing body the committee should resume meeting. Among the various bits of information thrown out by Kelley to the governing body in terms of source water protection, he referenced an interim policy from the Wyoming DEQ.

Officially known as “Interim Policy on Establishing Effluent Limits for Permitted Point Source Discharges to Class 1 Water Tributaries”, the defines Class 1 water as “those surface waters in which no further water quality degradation by point source discharges other than from dams will be allowed”.

Willow Creek, however, does not appear to be considered a Class 1 Water Tributary. What is, however, is the main steam of the Encampment River from the northern U.S. Forest Service boundary upstream to the Colorado state line.

Mayor Greg Salisbury informed Kelley, and the rest of the audience, he and the engineer contracted by the Town of Encampment had previously met with Wyoming DEQ two weeks prior in Cheyenne.

“They are aware and they’re already taking some action,” said Salisbury.

Water, water everywhere

Later in the evening, Encampment resident Andrea Jones asked Salisbury and the rest of the council who was operating the Town’s water treatment facility. In the past, the Town of Encampment has had three employees for the Department of Public Works. One resigned last year and two others have resigned within the past three months.

It should be noted, and was confirmed in the meeting, that the most recent employee to leave public works is a family member to Jones.

When asked as to who was operating the facility, Salisbury stated that Bill Acord and recent hire Ben Freytag were doing so with help from two certified individuals on retainer. One of those is former public works employee Katrina Nuhn. Jones then asked if either of the two employees were certified level two water operators, to which Salisbury stated Acord was still undergoing level one certification.

With the information about two certified individuals on retainer, Jones asked how often the water was being checked. Citing research done through the Environmental Protection Agency website, she stated the drinking water was to be checked twice a week and asked if that was the case.

Councilmember Stas Banach, who voiced his full support for Acord, insisted the drinking water was being tested. He added the records of chemical injections and other supporting documents were available for the public at the water treatment facility.

“The people that are running the water plant right now, that are not certified at a level two, are they supposed to be in there running it with someone on retainer?” asked Jones. “Is that legal?”

“Are you wanting us to just shut the water plant down?” responded Salisbury.

“No, I want you to not blow us up or poison us,” Jones replied.

Throughout the discussion, the governing body assured Jones the drinking water was safe to drink and the recently hired town employees would be properly certified with Acord being level two certified by January 2022.

The next meeting of the Encampment Town Council will be at 7 p.m. on September 9 at Encampment Town Hall.