News & Events

AS 2024 BEGINS – WHAT’S GOING ON WITH PROTECTION OF OUR DRINKING WATER?

Casper Aquifer Protection Plan Update

2023 saw the completion of the comprehensive update of the Casper Aquifer Protection Plan (CAPP) and marked the return to a single City/County plan to guide protective measures going forward.

The new plan includes:

• detailed refinement of the geologic conditions along the western boundary
• an expanded discussion of vulnerable features
• extensive presentation of water-quality data
• research into advanced-treatment septic systems
• and recommendations for improvement in the Table of Prohibited Uses, Site-

Specific Investigations, and overall aquifer-protection regulations.

In January 2024, Albany County Commissioners Pete Gosar and Sue Ibarra approved the first revisions to the county’s aquifer protection regulations in response to completion of the 2023 CAPP update.

This change refined the western boundary to reflect an improved analysis of the geology and modified the procedures for future adjustments of the aquifer protection boundaries.

Additional regulatory changes by both Albany County and the City of Laramie will move forward during 2024.

Other Changes to Aquifer Protection Regulations

Prior to completion of the updated CAPP, a majority of Albany County Commissioners (Pete Gosar and Sue Ibarra) approved revisions to the Albany County Zoning Resolution (county-level regulations) that strengthened aquifer protections.

These revisions, enacted in November 2021, were challenged by local landowners, and the district court nullified the revisions on procedural grounds in November 2022.

A slightly modified version of those regulations was subsequently developed by the Albany County Planning & Zoning Commission and adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on February 21, 2023.

Legal challenges were again filed almost immediately, but were ultimately dismissed by a district court decision in November 2023. This dismissal has been appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court and is currently pending.

Important features of the 2021 aquifer protection regulations (which had not been significantly changed since 2011) included:

• minimum lot sizes of 35 acres in any new subdivisions, to halt the proliferation of septic systems
• changes in the procedures for modifying the aquifer protection boundaries
• a prohibition on expansion of existing non-conforming (i.e. “grandfathered”) uses like the controversial Tumbleweed gas station.

As noted above, the February 2023 regulations were adopted without the benefit of the new CAPP, so additional regulatory revisions will be forthcoming from both the Albany County Commission and the Laramie City Council.