Commissioners get governor involved in Willwood silt

Posted 11/22/16

Now, refilling the pool behind the dam has been postponed at least until Dec. 2, when the governor has scheduled a meeting with the district and DEQ, said Todd Singbeil, manager of the Willwood Irrigation District.

The district had been planning …

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Commissioners get governor involved in Willwood silt

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Refilling of dam pool delayed

Following a public meeting last week, the Park County Commission asked Gov. Matt Mead to help resolve Willwood Irrigation District’s difficulty with sediment tainting the Shoshone River.

Now, refilling the pool behind the dam has been postponed at least until Dec. 2, when the governor has scheduled a meeting with the district and DEQ, said Todd Singbeil, manager of the Willwood Irrigation District.

The district had been planning to start refilling the pool Monday.

When the irrigation district lowered the dam pool last month to replace two sluice gates, change a penstock cover and automate the dam, more silt was released than allowed by a turbidity waiver from Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department notified the DEQ Oct. 18 that the silt had killed fish in the river.

Both the district and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that owns the dam facility, received a notice of violation from the DEQ for “violation of Wyoming’s surface water quality standards.”

The commissioners held a meeting Nov. 15 in Powell to outline the situation for the public and sent the letter to the governor the next day.

“We would like to request your help in providing leadership to organize the agencies toward a successful resolution of this event as well as finding a long term solution to address the continued problem of sediment in the dam,” said the commissioners’ letter to Mead, citing a “crucial and urgent need” to address the large amounts of silt still above the dam.

The purpose of the letter was to find someone in the governor’s office to coordinate the clean-up and advance a permanent solution, said Park County Commissioner Bucky Hall.

An individual or an agency appointed by the governor would be impartial, Hall said. “And, we’ll be able to move down the road toward getting the problem solved.”

“We’ve been in touch with the governor,” said Singbeil.

With the pool low, a lot of the sediment has had the opportunity to dry, making for easier removal, Singbeil said. A location to jettison the silt has not be found as of yet.

Singbeil said he reckoned the sediment is a mixture of top soil and sand, much of it from the McCullough Peaks.

Innumerable tires and other rubbish have washed downstream of the dam, annoying landowners.

One such landowner brought tires he fished out of the river to the district office for disposal, Singbeil said.

Singbeil asked people to take tires and other trash to the landfill.

“They’re not ours,” he said.

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