Wyoming has set aside a state-funded project to measure water use in the Green River and Little Snake River basins. The effort was meant to produce a basin-wide estimate of water lost during irrigation, but officials could not collect enough data to complete it. The project was discussed at a meeting in Cheyenne last month.
The two basins are part of Wyoming's portion of the Colorado River system. Without a basin-wide estimate, state water managers will have less information about how much irrigation water is consumed in that area.
The decision leaves a gap in the data available for managing water in this part of the Colorado River.