Fight for $80M dam boils as House strips funds
State Sen. Larry Hicks vowed Thursday to put an $80 million southwest Wyoming dam project back in a water construction bill after the House removed it along with a portion of its funding.
Hicks, (R-Baggs), made his pledge after the House, in a voice vote Thursday, stripped the bill of the proposed 280-foot-high dam in Carbon County’s Little Snake River drainage, along with $10 million to seed the project. The Joint Appropriations Committee had already cut $30 million from a proposed $40 million appropriation sought by the Wyoming Water Development Commission for the dam on the West Fork of Battle Creek.
The House action sends the water construction bill to the Senate with no mention of the West Fork dam. But Hicks vowed to revive the project. He chairs the Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee to which the measure was referred.
“We’ll put it back in when it comes over here,” he told WyoFile. “Heck, we might even put in $60 million.”
Read more: http://www.wyofile.com/fight-80m-dam-boils-house-strips-funds/