Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Proposed Wyoming wells would draw 1.5 billion gallons of water annually

Melody Edwards · The frontline of water conflicts: ranching · Aug 24, 2022 · at 11:38

Journalist Melody Edwards describes the scale of high-capacity well drilling permits applied for in Laramie County, Wyoming.

0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.7s

720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark

“Yeah, so it would be enough water to cover 4700 acres with a foot of water which is one and a half billion gallons, so it's a really large amount of water, and that would be enough to supply a city of actually 13,000 people a year,”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

The eight proposed high-capacity water wells by the Lerwick family would draw 1.5 billion gallons of water annually, enough to supply a city of 13,000 people.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Official permit applications submitted to the Wyoming State Engineer's Office (SEO) by members of the Lerwick family for eight high-capacity irrigation wells requested a total annual groundwater allocation of 4,642 acre-feet (approximately 1.51 billion gallons). Throughout the contested case hearings and advisory board proceedings between 2020 and 2022, the proposed withdrawal was consistently documented as approximately 4,700 acre-feet (1.5 billion gallons) annually, which hydrogeological assessments and independent reporting confirmed equates to the annual water consumption of a municipality of roughly 10,000 to 13,000 residents.

In 2019, the Lerwick family filed eight permit applications with the Wyoming State Engineer's Office seeking a total allocation of 4,642 acre-feet (~1.513 billion gallons) of groundwater annually.
Contested case hearings in June 2021 and Laramie County Control Area Advisory Board findings confirmed the total volume contested across the eight wells was ~4,600 to 4,700 acre-feet (1.5 billion gallons) annually.
Reporting and state hydrological context consistently equated 4,642–4,700 acre-feet to the annual water demand of a municipality of 10,000 to 13,000 residents.

Checked against

[1] wyofile.com [2] wyomingpublicmedia.org [3] wyomingpublicmedia.org [4] wyofile.com [5] wyomingpublicmedia.org [6] wyomingpublicmedia.org [7] wyomingpublicmedia.org

Lerwick Bros eight proposed high capacity wells Wyoming water Lerwick water wells Wyoming 4700 acre feet 1.5 billion gallons

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

high-capacity water wells Lerwick family

⚑ Spot an error? Report it

More from Melody Edwards

Assertion Supported

Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have completely depleted their groundwater

“There's parts of Kansas that are, really, have completely, you know, lost all their water. Parts of Oklahoma, parts of Texas that just don't have that water source anymore.”

Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 4:34 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Assertion Supported

Wyoming ranchers passed law shifting burden of proof onto well applicants

“They were successful in passing a bill to the applicant to prove that the, that these permits would not injure the neighbors and other water users.”

Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 18:25 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Wyoming well approvals could spread water speculation across the American West

“It looks like the state engineer is going to, you know, issue these permits and allow the, this kind of drilling, which means that that could happen again elsewhere in the state. And then other states look at what Wyoming's doing. We are a leader in water law …”

Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 19:36 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Assertion Supported

Depleted Ogallala Aquifer will take roughly 6,000 years to regenerate

“Once it's depleted, it's, you know, gonna take like 6000 years for it to regenerate itself.”

Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 2:04 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Proposed Wyoming wells would draw 1.5 billion gallons of water annually

More from Melody Edwards

Turn any episode into a week of clips.