JACKSON, Wyo. — It was a packed house at the Teton County Library on Wednesday, April 23, for the Teton County Water Summit, the inaugural event featuring water experts from all over the state who spoke about the future of water in Wyoming.
The day-long event was held at the Teton County Library, where representatives from water districts and federal agencies, as well as engineers, scientists, accountants, stakeholders and community members discussed all things water. Guest speakers shared the most pertinent information on Wyoming’s water testing, needed infrastructure, funding challenges, emerging pollutants, water treatment plans, septic systems upgrades and need for regionalization with towns and counties working together.
Teton County Public Works Water Resources Coordinator Christopher Peltz, who was hired last year to help implement the Teton County Water Quality Management Plan, welcomed everyone to the event. He said that the first-ever water summit was a great way for water districts and the public “to get in the practice of talking about water resources.”
Board of County Commissioners Chairman Mark Newcomb addressed Jackson Hole’s water challenges. He said that even though the region’s class one watershed encompasses a vast ecosystem of high quality snowmelt, the region’s cold climate and smaller aquifers make it difficult to remove pollutants and filter water quickly.
“I don’t think it’s inappropriate to say that maybe we should start thinking about creating our own system that’s going to protect our water for the next 2,000 years,” Newcomb said.
Emerging pollutants
The keynote speaker was Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Water Quality Division Administrator Jennifer Zygmunt. She discussed how the emerging threat of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water has become a major concern.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PFAS are thousands of synthetic chemicals used in various consumer, commercial and industrial products for their resistance to water, heat and oil. PFAS can be found in everyday products like cleaning products, water-resistant clothing and non-stick cookware. These forever chemicals don’t easily break down and persist in the environment.
The EPA and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry report that PFAS can be detected in the blood of most people, and that over 97% of individuals in the U.S. have measurable amounts of PFAS in their blood.
Zygmunt said that the EPA is now implementing a Emerging Contaminants (EC) program in small or disadvantaged communities. In 2021, this grant program was established to address the challenges of PFAS in drinking water, public water systems and/or in source water. Projects that address any contaminant listed on the EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) are eligible for possible funding.
The CCL, which was published by the EPA in 2022, is a list of drinking water contaminants, including PFAS, which are not currently subject to EPA drinking water regulations. The CCL is used to identify contaminants that could require future regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
A study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) revealed that both public water supplies and private wells in Wyoming show the presence of PFAS.
Regulatory process
Kyle St. Clair, EPA Physical Scientist and Wyoming’s drinking water liaison, shared the EPA’s process when establishing and enforcing new rules to protect human health and the environment. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA is required to review and potentially revise existing drinking water regulations at least once every six years.
“Every six years, a contaminant list undergoes regulatory review to understand what is out there and what is a concern to public health,” Clair said. “Then internal deliberations determine if a contaminant will become a regulation. Then a proposed rule becomes a final rule. It can take years to do this.”
St. Clair said that communities need to set procedures for emergency preparedness and response to mitigate water contamination, especially since the EPA does not have people on the ground in Wyoming.
Pragati Sharma, the EPA’s Manager of the Nitrate Rule and Consumer Confidence Report, stressed the importance of regularly testing drinking water. Sharma said that nitrate levels in water systems need to be monitored, since they are considered “an acute contaminant.”
The nitrate rule states that levels cannot exceed 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in drinking water. If levels exceed safe water requirements, then the EPA and local health department must be notified immediately, per the nitrate rule.
Many residents in Hoback Canyon do not drink from their wells because their nitrate levels have consistently been found to exceed 10 mg/L. According to the EPA, septic systems are the primary source of the high nitrate levels found in Hoback’s groundwater.
Sharma added that fertilizers and pesticides also contain high amounts of nitrates, and excess levels can reach groundwater supplies. She said that high levels of nitrates can harm infants.
Funding sources
Mark Pepper, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems, encouraged communities to look for sources of revenue to repair and construct infrastructure.
Pepper said that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)’s 2023 report shows that “Wyoming’s degraded infrastructure” requires an investment of approximately $4 billion over the next 20 years to replace tanks, pipes and water systems. He also noted that source water recharge will become a much bigger issue in the future with the projected lack of water across the state.
Pepper said that it will become more challenging for special districts to acquire needed funding for water projects now that the State Legislature has reduced property tax by 25%.
“Special districts only have two ways to get money — either through property tax or what’s in your pockets with user fees,” Pepper said. “That’s it, there are no other revenue sources available with the statute.”
To help acquire needed funding, Pepper said that he advocates for water districts to raise their rates by at least 3% every year. He also said that communities should pursue grants and loans for water and sewer projects. He suggested the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Economic Development program as an example, which allocates approximately $8 million to Wyoming annually.
George Moser, project manager for the Wyoming Water Development Commission (WWDC), said that the WWDC helps communities with testing, identifying water resources and obtaining needed funding through its Groundwater Exploration Grant Program. The program, which uses oil and gas severance tax money, provides 75% matching grants, up to $400,000, for exploration of groundwater potential and drilling of exploratory wells, according to the WWDC.
Recently, Moser worked with the Hoback Water and Sewer District to secure almost $300,000 to support the design of their proposed drinking water system. He said that the WWDC helps communities like Hoback with asset management and forming a water district, which is required in order to be eligible for state funding.
Protect our Water Jackson Hole (POWJH) Executive Director Phil Powers said that tens of millions of dollars would be required to expand sewer infrastructure and the wastewater treatment plant in Teton County. Powers said that community members have work to do, especially with Fish Creek and Flat Creek being “impaired” due to elevated levels of E. coli bacteria and sediment.
“We have a line of expense going up rather steeply and exponentially in the future,” Powers said. “And a line of revenue that’s flat at best and perhaps going down. It’s our job as citizens, employees and voters to make sure that we can do what we can to fund this extraordinary infrastructure.”
Stay tuned for more news from the inaugural Water Summit.
