 - A discussion with utility providers during a recent legislative committee meeting shed light on some of the infrastructure challenges that complicate housing development and other building initiatives on the Wind River Reservation. ){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – A discussion with utility providers during a recent legislative committee meeting shed light on some of the infrastructure challenges that complicate housing development and other building initiatives on the Wind River Reservation.
The most prominent of those challenges arises during the “lengthy and expensive process” of securing right-of-way easements through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, High Plains Power Engineering and Substation Superintendent Brock Roberts told the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations during a June 16 meeting in Riverton.
That process requires “extensive environmental and archaeological studies on the front end,” Brock said – but it’s also further complicated by the allotment system on the reservation that “can make it intensive, from both a financial and a time perspective,” to receive clearance from local property owners to obtain right-of-way easements.
Allotments
The allotment system has created properties on the reservation that are owned by multiple people – and sometimes hundreds of people, Wyoming Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, explained.
Those group ownership scenarios can make it difficult for utility providers to secure right-of-way easements, which must be approved by at least 51 percent of the ownership interest on each affected property, High Plains Staking Technician Corey Vogelsang said, noting that some of those owners can be “really hard to get a hold of” – especially if they live out of state.
“It’s hit or miss,” Vogelsang said. “We do have some success, but it really depends on the availability of the landowners.”
‘The project is stalled’
If more than 50 people have ownership rights on one property, the BIA can approve the right-of-way easement on their behalf, Vogelsang said – but some local projects have been stymied by allotments owned by fewer than 50 people.
One of those projects would have allowed High Plains to “provide better service” and “room for growth in some of the areas north of Lander,” Roberts said, describing a seven-year-old attempt to rebuild about five miles of three-phase overhead line between Ray Lake and Fort Washakie.
The majority of the required allotment consents have been obtained for that project, Vogelsang said – but “there is one allotment” whose approximately 24 owners “will not respond to any attempts through certified mail.”
“We can’t get the 51 percent, (so) we can’t move forward,” Roberts said. “The project is stalled.”
Fortunately, the electricity infrastructure in that area isn’t currently “causing reliability issues,” Roberts noted – but because of the allotment issue, High Plains may not be able to replace the power lines “before some of the aged components begin to fail (in) the future.”
The company “wouldn’t be able to serve new loads at some level” either, Case said, pointing out that the situation “could impair economic development” locally.
Shipton Lane
The right-of-way challenges have already held up progress on a local housing development, Roberts said, referring to the Medicine Water Road Project on Shipton Lane in Fort Washakie.
The Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority was responsible for obtaining the right-of-way easement for that project, Roberts said, and “to our knowledge, (they) still haven’t been able to get that … completed.”
That’s despite the fact that the houses have already been built, Vogelsang pointed out.
“There’s 20 plus units,” he said. “And we haven’t been able to receive a right-of-way to install any electricity to those units. So the houses are there, but they do not have electrical.”
The homes don’t have natural gas or water infrastructure either, Wyoming Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, added.
“There’s no utilities there, period,” he said. “The houses (are) just kind of sitting here, to my knowledge.”
Case said he was “overwhelmed” by that information, which he called “astounding.”
Wyoming Public Service Commission Deputy Chairman Chris Petrie used the word “distressing” to describe the situation later in the meeting.
“We’d normally expect the utilities to arrive as soon as the project was completed, or in early phases of the project,” Petrie said, agreeing that the holdup likely involves “right-of-way difficulties.”
‘Red tape’
Case suggested inviting the BIA to a future meeting to discuss the right-of-way issue, which he noted is “not the fault of the tribal governments.”
Instead, he said, “it’s really an institutional, bureaucratic environment” within the federal government that “harms people here.”
“Imagine if you want to open a business or build a house or locate a road – they have the same problems that utilities have,” Case said. “And it dampens economic development. It dampens the ability to move forward. It’s more like a chokehold. …
“(There are) 15,000 or more people that live in the Wind River Indian Reservation, and yet basic services are not available, and we can’t look forward to upgraded electrical service. We try to house people, to provide housing, and we can’t even supply basic utilities.”
Later in the meeting, Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Keenan Groesbeck confirmed that the issues High Plains Power described impact tribal governments as well.
“We’re in the same boat,” Groesbeck said. “A lot of the projects that try to go on out here get hindered by the bureaucracy (and) red tape from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and it’s tough to move forward. … It’s a headache at the end of the day.”
Local tribal leaders are “being proactive,” though, Groesbeck continued, describing efforts to form a “planning committee for public development” that can coordinate with utility providers, transportation officials, and local developers to “plan the infrastructure (so) we don’t have these big problems.”
Tribal officials are also considering “taking over that trust responsibility for right-of-ways” by entering into a 638 contract with the federal government “so we could bypass the red tape from the Bureau,” Groesbeck said.
The next Tribal Relations Committee meeting is scheduled to take place Oct. 6-7 in Riverton.