Gans: Wyoming’s Recreational Waters Must Remain Pristine
Pristine streams in Wyoming, as rare as they are cherished, refresh weary travelers hiking through the forests, mountains and deserts of Wyoming. A capful of water poured overhead, or a cupful splashed over the face, is a welcome blessing on a long, hot hike.
With the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s new rule downgrading water quality across much of the state, however, such experiences may become a thing of the past.
Last week, the DEQ released a revised version of its Categorical Use Attainability Analysis for recreational water quality. A year ago, the DEQ rescinded its decision to downgrade water quality thresholds for not having taken recreational concerns into account. This time around there are much-needed improvements, but at its root the study is fundamentally flawed and inappropriately downgrades recreational water quality standards for nearly 83,000 miles of Wyoming streams.
Wyoming is unique for its open spaces and intact ecosystems. People live in and travel to this state to immerse themselves in natural landscapes and open spaces. Wyoming’s leadership recognizes this, and stresses the importance of outdoor recreation to people and the economy.
Many of the stream miles to be impacted are on public lands — lands important to the more than 97 percent of Wyoming residents who recreate outdoors and to our wilderness school, NOLS, for teaching leadership and outdoor skills. NOLS is one of Fremont County’s largest employers, while the state’s outdoor recreation economy is second only to the energy sector in annual revenue.
Economic diversification carries the state forward when oil, gas and coal revenues falter. Now is the time to invest in the outdoor economy, not step backward on our water quality standards. These stream standard downgrades, if implemented, send a message that Wyoming doesn’t value the pristine qualities of our streams and natural resources.
Wyoming residents and visitors alike should be confident that the streams they visit, whether in their backyards or deep in the backcountry, are safe and will be maintained to the highest recreational standards. Families and children play in these streams. NOLS students, too, use many streams that would be downgraded.
The DEQ’s decision to implement bulk downgrades of stream quality should not be a future that Wyomingites settle for. The existing system for addressing watersheds on a case-by-case basis is more appropriate and better preserves Wyoming’s heritage.
Wyoming has the opportunity to take ownership of its image as a land of pristine waters and of its opportunities for primitive and unbounded outdoor recreation. The public perception of these qualities, Wyoming’s image of a pristine Western landscape, is what drives the tourism and outdoor recreation economies in our state. We need the vision to recognize the value of this image, the actual quality of our streams to uphold it, and the leadership to grow them positively.
Clean water is not a privilege in Wyoming. It is a birthright. It is the responsibility of our state agencies to maintain a high level of water quality for its citizens and for the country.
This story originally appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune.
Topics: News
