A group in Laramie called Citizens for Clean Water is circulating a petition calling for changes to the Albany County Board of Commissioners’ Casper Aquifer Protection Plan draft resolution. The resolution will lay out what kind of development can proceed over the aquifer’s recharge area for the next two years.
The petition calls for the Board to add a buffer zone along the western border of the recharge area, where developers must prove they won’t contaminate the aquifer… and it asks the Board to require site-specific studies for every planned building project on the recharge area.
Suzy Pelican is a member of Citizens for Clean Water.
“We want to make Laramie area residents much more aware of the importance of the Casper Aquifer to all of us, and it’s really to not take our great water for granted, and to know that we need to protect it,” Pelican says.
The Casper Aquifer provides 60-percent of Laramie’s water, and 100-percent of the water to developments and businesses east of the city.
Laramie attorney Mitch Edwards represents a number of landowners on the recharge area. He says they don’t want development restrictions that are too stringent.
“We’re more in favor of the approach of let’s have less restrictions that are absolute, and say let’s look at this as development comes in on a site specific basis to determine, does that development fit in the area, and then what measures need to be taken to make sure the aquifer’s properly protected,” Edwards says.
The public comment period on the draft resolution is open until August 7.
