Reba Epler News Today

As noted in the first LWVMC column of October, the petroleum industry knew in 1959 that oil and coal were radically altering the environment. The effect on the climate came clear in the mid-sixties …

A conversation with the Times reporter Delger Erdenesanaa, who helped lead an investigation on the poor oversight of our country’s aquifers.

The Times asked all 50 states how they police the use of valuable groundwater. Their answers reveal why the country is draining and damaging its aquifers so rapidly.

Climate change is causing the American West to experience what’s now being called a megadrought…the worst water shortage in 1,200 years. The Ogallala Aquifer is a huge underground water source supplying eight states where it may seem safely stored away. But as one ranching community in southeast Wyoming is finding out…that water is disappearing. Part of the problem is that water law hasn’t kept up with emerging science.

Applications to drill eight high capacity water wells in Laramie County continue to move forward, even though, last fall, a control area advisory board recommended they be rejected. Since then, the case's hearing examiner submitted an 85-page proposed order to the state engineer recommending the water wells be approved.

A state bill that requires groundwater drillers to prove their wells wouldn’t hurt neighboring water supplies or streams has passed the legislature.

A bill has passed out of committee that would require applicants interested in drilling water wells to prove the wells wouldn’t deplete their neighbors’ streams and wells. Right now, the neighbors have to prove it would hurt them.

Wyoming Public Radio Alan Kirkbride on the bank of Horse Creek. Hes worried that proposed wells into the groundwater could drain this creek he relies on for ranching. Driving east out of Cheyenne, a lot of people probably think theres nothing but cornfields and oil wells. But if you climb in an ATV with rancher Alan Kirkbride, hell show you a secret world where his ancestors have raised cattle since the late 1800s. We climb out on the bank of Horse Creek where thick willows grow under high whi...

Reba Epler Local ranchers are concerned that the high capacity wells could drain Little Horse Creek, one of the last flowing creeks in the area. A controversial water dispute in Laramie County that got held up last year because of the pandemic will see its day in court June 9-11 in Cheyenne. 17 ranch families are pushing back on a permit application by three members of the Lerwick family to drill eight high-pressure wells north of Cheyenne. These wells would appropriate 1.6 billion gallons of ...