Soon after the Wyoming Water Development office released its final report in the fall of 2017 supporting a proposed $80 million dam on the West Fork of Battle Creek critics began to question the project. It would supply supplemental irrigation for 67 to 100 ranchers, fueling skepticism that spread to include a majority of the state House of Representatives. Representatives stripped funding from the project, but reached a compromise with the Senate that kept the project alive. Now water developers seek to secure pro-rata funding from Colorado, which would benefit from the dam, and 100 acres of U.S. Forest Service property for the proposed 10,000-acre reservoir.
