The Miracle Mile is one of Wyoming’s most treasured trout fisheries, drawing anglers from across the country and generating millions in recreation-based revenue each year. But this world-class fishery, adjacent crucial wildlife habitat, and local communities and economies that depend on them are at risk.
The proposed Seminoe Pumped Storage Project, a renewable energy storage project being developed by rPlus Hydro, could significantly alter the water quality, fish populations, and aquatic ecosystem of the North Platte River and wildlife habitat in adjacent uplands. Concerns brought forward during the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping process include: potential impacts to the world-class, blue-ribbon fishery in the North Platte’s Miracle Mile that generates millions of dollars of fishing and other recreation-based economic benefits each year; long-term effects on water quality; entrainment of fish in Seminoe Reservoir; sport and ice fishing impacts in Seminoe Reservoir; premature dam failure; emergency spillway design inadequacies; North Platte system water rights; wetland loss; impacts to mule deer, bighorn sheep and sage grouse habitat; long-term impacts to recreation including fishing and hunting; construction-related impacts; and socioeconomic impacts to surrounding communities.
To learn more about these potential impacts, please review:
- Trout Unlimited’s Seminoe Pumped Storage Project Background Document
- Trout Unlimited’s Public Record Review Presentation from the March 4th Seminoe Pumped Storage Project Community Information Meeting
- Diagram and project map (below)
Despite these risks and uncertainties, the project is advancing quickly through the permitting process. A comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and stringent agency permit conditions are necessary to ensure that the irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and recreation opportunities in and around the North Platte’s Miracle Mile and Seminoe Reservoir are adequately evaluated, monitored, protected, and mitigated (if the project is advanced).
Join Trout Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Wyoming Trout Unlimited, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation, and Wyoming Wildlife Federation in asking regulatory and management agencies as well as elected officials to ensure that the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project is only permitted if impacts are adequately studied and addressed.
We need your help with these 3 urgent actions by 2 PM on Friday, March 14th (NOTE: petition signatures will be accepted after 2 pm and are still valuable - but they will not make it into TU and partners' official comment letter as an attachment after 2 pm MST)!
- Sign the petition to the right to let agencies and elected officials know your concerns (2 minutes - please note that TU will provide a copy of the list of petition signers to FERC, regulatory and management agencies, and elected officials)
- Share with your friends (5 minutes)
- Submit your official public comments to FERC (15 minutes – takes longer but it is very important to be part of the public record vs. signing the petition only)
To the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), regulatory and management agencies, and elected officials:
The Seminoe Pumped Storage project is a large, 900+ megawatt renewable energy storage project that is being proposed to support the export of Wyoming wind energy to regional out-of-state markets such as Colorado and California. The project developer is proposing an open-loop pumped storage system that stores energy during times of low demand and releases energy during times of high demand. The project does not generate any new energy, but it contributes to the stability of the energy grid. It is being sited in Carbon County, WY, with an upper reservoir proposed to be built on BLM lands, and Seminoe Reservoir (Bureau of Reclamation facility) to be used as the system’s lower reservoir.
The siting, configuration, and construction of the project has raised significant concerns identified during the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping process by numerous federal, state, and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the general public about its potential impacts. These include, but are not limited to: potential impacts to the world-class, blue-ribbon fishery in the North Platte’s Miracle Mile that generates millions of dollars of fishing and other recreation-based economic benefits each year; long-term effects on water quality; entrainment of fish in Seminoe Reservoir; sport and ice fishing impacts in Seminoe Reservoir; premature dam failure; emergency spillway design inadequacies; North Platte system water rights; wetland loss; impacts to mule deer, bighorn sheep and sage grouse habitat; long-term impacts to recreation including fishing and hunting; construction-related impacts; and socioeconomic impacts to surrounding communities.
According to agency comments in the public record, water quality and fisheries studies may include concerning results (such as increased water temperatures beyond allowable thresholds for a Class 1 water that supports coldwater fisheries), limitations in scope (such as not extending throughout the entire Miracle Mile), and may be built upon modeling using limited actual data collected.
The Seminoe Pumped Storage Project poses potentially serious risks to fisheries, wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, local economies, and health and human safety. We, the undersigned, therefore urge FERC to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with analyses and studies that adequately address agency and public concerns, including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s request for additional fisheries impact studies in the Miracle Mile, and we urge federal, state, and local agencies to apply stringent permit conditions to ensure that the irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and recreation opportunities in and around the North Platte’s Miracle Mile and Seminoe Reservoir are monitored, protected, and mitigated (if the project is advanced). If the EIS process reveals that degradation is likely to happen to resources that are not easily remedied through mitigation – for example, loss or significant impairment of the Miracle Mile fishery, and/or bighorn sheep and mule deer habitat, as well as associated impacts to the local economy and recreation – we ask that federal, state, and local agencies intervene, and elected officials speak up to question if the project should be advanced as proposed (for example, closed-loop pumped storage systems, which have been studied to have fewer environmental impacts, as well as alternative sites and technologies for renewable energy storage, could be considered in collaboration with federal land management and state fish and wildlife management agencies).
While we understand the importance of domestic energy development, we believe that this renewable energy storage project, which is likely to export Wyoming’s wind and solar energy to out-of-state renewable energy markets, should not be advanced at the expense of Wyoming’s irreplaceable natural resources and the communities and economies that depend on them. There is too much at stake in this location and risk to Wyoming’s way of life to hastily permit this project.