S. 1305 would authorize the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to plan and construct a project to expand water storage at Fontonelle Dam and Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming. Based on information from the BOR, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would have an insignificant net cost. Because implementing S. 1305 would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting S. 1305 would not affect revenues.
Under current law, the amount of water storage available to the State of Wyoming at the reservoir is the difference between full capacity and the lowest water level that allows all of the authorized purposes of the Fontonelle project to be performed. Under the bill, the BOR would coordinate with the State of Wyoming to design and construct modifications to Fontonelle Dam and Reservoir to allow the project to operate at a lower water level, thus expanding the amount of storage available to the state. S. 1305 also would require the state to contribute 100 percent of the costs to design and construct the project. (Those contributions would be recorded in the budget as offsetting receipts and would subsequently be spent without further appropriation.)
S. 1305 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would benefit the State of Wyoming. Any costs incurred by state agencies related to the federal water project would be incurred voluntarily as conditions of receiving federal assistance.
