Dayton working to keep water clean | Local News | thesheridanpress.com – The Sheridan Press

DAYTON A plan in the works since April reaffirms the town of Daytons commitment to providing quality water to its citizens and outlines practical ways to do that.

Michelle Christopher, source water protection specialist with the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems, has been partnering with the town to develop a Source Water Protection Plan. The plan outlines how the town will maintain the quality of its drinking water as it continues to develop and grow.

Maintaining the quality of water will maintain quality of life in Dayton, Christopher said. Protecting that resource becomes more and more important as development comes in and the town continues to expand.

Christopher was approached earlier this year by Daytons water and sewer operator Lorren Lane to work on the plan, which is provided free to all communities that request it.

I just thought it was really good to have it as a resource, Lane said. Its a good way to keep an eye on our water. It just shows that we care about the quality of our water. I think it can be hard to care about water quality as a landowner if you dont sense that the town has the same priorities. So this is a way to get those priorities down in black and white.

Christopher helps anywhere from three to five Wyoming communities develop water protection plans each year, but Dayton proved to be more challenging than most because of its unique water resource structure. The town has two water sources a well, which pumps in groundwater from the Madison Aquifer, and surface water from the Tongue River.

Dayton was a challenge because its a two-source system, Christopher said. So I was completing a surface water plan and a groundwater plan at the same time. It was like writing two plans at once. But the nice thing for the town is that, if something happens to the well, they still have the surface water from the Tongue River and vice versa. They are really set up well if something unexpected happens.

When drafting a water protection plan, Christopher considers a variety of ways to improve the water quality. These solutions usually involve working with those who share the water source including the county, forest service and adjoining land owners.

We start by asking whats going on in this landscape that could affect source water quality, Christopher said. We cant stop development, and we cant stop industry. But, sometimes, even small changes to how you develop a parcel of land or permit septic systems can have major impacts on water quality.

Daytons hundred-page draft plan has two major suggestions for how to improve water quality, Christopher said. The first is working with the U.S. Forest Service to designate the Upper Tongue River Watershed as a municipal watershed. This would require the forest service to make clean drinking water a priority when making management decisions involving the Tongue River.

The second suggestion involves working with the county planning and zoning board to ensure septic permitting in the town does not have an impact on the drinking water sources, Christopher said.

The draft source water protection plan is currently being reviewed by Dayton Town Council. Once the council makes their edits to the document, Christopher will hold a public meeting to inform community members about the plan and how it could affect landowners in the area.

I dont know what that will look like or when it will happen, Christopher said. The way things have been going, we may just hold a Zoom meeting where we hang out in our pajamas and talk about source water quality. But we definitely want to hear from the community and all the stakeholders. After that, we can hopefully adopt it.

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Dayton working to keep water clean | Local News | thesheridanpress.com - The Sheridan Press