PRESS RELEASE: Feds Agree With Save The Colorado, Require New Cost Estimate For Wyoming Boondoggle Dam

9/17/2024
For Immediate Release
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado, 970-218-8310

Feds Agree With Save The Colorado, Require New Cost Estimate For Wyoming Boondoggle Dam

Carbon County, WY: Yesterday, the Laramie Boomerang (newspaper) posted a story stating that the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) — which is the lead permit agency for the proposed West Fork Battle Creek Dam — is requiring the State of Wyoming Water Development Office to “update” the cost estimate for the project. The proposed dam would be a massive concrete structure, 264 feet tall and 700 feet across a deep gorge in a remote section of the Medicine Bow National Forest, which the State has contended would only cost $80 million.

The Boomerang story is here. 

Save The Colorado* inserted targeted comments into the scoping process for the EIS in February of 2023 strongly arguing that the $80 million cost estimate was outrageously low. Save The Colorado’s comment letter is posted here.

“This project is so large and controversial that permitting and litigation could cost $20 million to $30 million alone,” said Gary Wockner of Save The Colorado. “Compared to the other ~15 projects we are engaged against, we estimate this massive concrete dam on West Fork of Battle Creek could cost over $300 million, maybe 4 times the original estimate. The NRCS made the right decision by requiring an updated and more professional cost estimate.”

(* Save The Colorado is a program of Save The World’s Rivers)

This press release is posted here.

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