Sunny: The water well thing is not big regulatory issue. The State of Wyoming owns subsurface water. To drill a well, you call up Cheyenne and they send you a simple form. You reply with what they want, mostly what they are picky about is where you want the well to actually be located, then you send it back. Approval is quick, cost is not much. Currently they are not requiring that the SSNs of your children be on the permit (nor yours.) They give you a permit, which is good for about a year to complete the well, then you make arrangements for a well to be drilled. Cheyenne beaurocrats are about the easiest to get along with on the phone, as any that you will run into at any local level. Others' mileage may vary. Probably by not much.
But since the topic of government regulation of subsurface things was brought up by you, you should make yourself aware of the concept of "split estate" in force here. A surface owner owns his ground, but another party may or may not own what is underneath it. If the latter is the case, the surface owner gets paid for things that will happen across the surface of his land, in order to extract what is owned beneath it by others. Get up to speed on this concept if buying anywhere in the state, but especially in coalbed methane country, which is quite a bit of Campbell, Johnson, and Sheridan counties.
The phrase regarding the above paragraph, is "mineral rights." Land sold with all minerals, will cost more than land sold with another party owning mineral rights. Even if you own all minerals on and beneath your property, you still must give (and be compensated for) access right-of-way for gas pipelines that may be caused to be routed across your land.
That's the way the law is here. It's been around for a very long while, and I would argue that the split estate concept has allowed Wyoming to be what it has become, warts and all. (Last I heard on this board, Wyoming was still the place that people want to come to.) The split estate concept runs the state government. Extraction companies pay for what the state government does, by and large. Failing states in this country, are those who continue to expand social services with no money to back them, without resorting to increases in personal income, sales, and property taxes.
Any sane person can argue that Wyoming should not be expanding its state government "services" in response to the money coming in from mineral severance taxes. The Democrap governer here, an early Obama supporter, did a wise thing and ordered all agencies to cut back 10% on budgetary requests due to declining revenue from mineral severance taxes. Other states have done a much worse job than Freudenthal has done, that way.
Used to be, that Wyoming exported its unemployment problem. People that came here during the booms that have always run this state's economy, a boom and bust place, generally exported themselves when things went bust as they always do. This was due to WY's lack of social services, during those bust times. Where is the state now in that regard? Couldn't say, but I imagine that the state government has been trying to mimic all the current money pits of other states in the expansion of social services.
So it could be that the old mime about Wyoming exporting its unemployment problems, may not apply anymore. Today's number was the same as last month's, 6.8%. There was some cautionary talk by the State guy that it would go higher. Hhmm, Barry's talk is always that things will get better...
That was before all the severance tax money from coal, oil, and natural gas started coming into the state. This state here now tries to emulate many of the spending concepts that other states have done.
Might be that WY can weather much of the bad things coming down the pike. Or not.
I'm a long ways from the Cheyenne flagpole, and live in a tight-knit neighborhood that covers quite a lot of ground. What the state does may or may not be helpful for the state, but on a more local level, we will try to help and protect ourselves.
In the spirit of full disclosure: I make my living from the gas patch. I live a long ways from the work, a company truck gets me there. For me, having the chance to see and work at ground level, the breaks country along the Powder River that I used to see just as an interstate highway traveler along I-90, is a cool thing. Sometimes the hardhat (slave collar) and press of work interferes with the view.
The gas patch will never hit me where I live. But if you, Sunny, are looking for places to buy, I'd advise against anything in the patch. Be upfront with any realtor that you deal with, ask about current mineral development and read the find print about who owns what.
