Wyoming's Water Issue: Planning for Water Scarcity or Ignoring It?

The state of Wyoming contains the headwaters for the Colorado River, a river that supplies billions of people their water throughout the Western United States. Water is a vital resource that all life needs to survive. As climate change is predicted to change the known water regime and timing in snowpack melt, the state must plan for changes in water availability. In 2015, Wyoming's Governor Matthew Mead released Wyoming's Water Strategy to address and plan for future water scarcity. Within his plan, the governor laid out plans for 10 new water storage projects in ten years. Three years after the plan was published, no projects have been completed and only two have been started. The goal of this project was to understand the necessity and accuracy for Governor Mead's plan. This was accomplished by observing and interviewing people throughout the state of Wyoming who would be affected by the Governor's plan. This project also offers different projects or solutions the state would benefit from considering the uncertainty in the future of water.