Governor Mark Gordon said the Colorado River scarcity is drawing attention to water storage concerns in Wyoming.
During a question-and-answer session in Jackson, Gordon noted that the Bureau of Reclamation was taking water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming this summer and sending it to Lake Powell to keep it at critical levels for hydropower plants. He said climate conditions are worrying for the future of water runoff in the state and Wyoming needs to continue storage efforts.
“We have obviously seen drought, but we have seen less runoff. We have also seen much drier conditions across the west, which means that if we get a large blanket of snow it will infiltrate more of it than it will drain,” Gordon said. “So this will be a long way back and it is certainly one of the most important problems we face.”
Gordon added that he recently spoke with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland about Wyoming’s drought contingency plans to divert and store water from the Colorado River basin.
The governor also told the audience about the work he has done with several other western governors in managing forest fires. Gordon said the bipartisan group seemed to agree that a comprehensive forest management plan is needed to properly tackle forest fires.
This is more than “we fight fires when they start”. It’s about “What do we do for regeneration? What are we doing against invasive species in the countryside? What are we doing to make churches fireproof? ”Said Gordon.
He added that he also wants to reduce complaints about forest management plans.
Comments are closed.