RAWLINS - Two Saratoga-based water user groups succeeded in moving to their community an October hearing regarding water in Pathfinder Reservoir.

But the two groups failed in their attempt to have the federal government's motion for a change of use of some Pathfinder water dismissed.

Nonetheless, Joe Glode, president of the Upper North Platte Valley Water Users Association and the Upper North Platte Valley Water Conservation Association, was pleased with the change-of-venue decision by the Wyoming Board of Control. After a hearing earlier this week, Board of Control members agreed to move the Oct. 9 hearing to Saratoga.

The hearing had been scheduled in Casper, but attorneys for the two water user groups argued that because most parties which filed for status in the matter are from the Saratoga area, and none are from Casper, the hearing should be moved.

"I was gratified we got the change of venue," Glode said. "I was gratified that two Board of Control members were adamant about that from a standpoint of courtesy and from a standpoint of policy."

Glode said he and other members of the two water user groups were disappointed that the Board of Control didn't directly respond to the points raised in the motion to dismiss the petition for a change of use of 53,493 acre feet of Pathfinder's water annually.

"But I agree that we need to get this heard," Glode said.

The issues raised by the water users will be the subject of the Oct. 9 hearing, Glode said. At that time, the merits of the Bureau of Reclamation's petition to change the use of the water, the bureau's model and Wyoming water law will be debated.

BuRec officials say the change of use is needed to comply with an agreement involving Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado to provide water for endangered species in Nebraska. Wyoming has agreed to contribute $6 million for an extension of the Pathfinder Dam, an effort to compensate for storage capacity lost to sediment buildup. The program calls for some reservoir water to be sent downstream to preserve endangered species.

The Saratoga groups dispute the BuRec's position that the government should be awarded a 1904 senior water right for the 53,493 acre feet. The government is asking to "go to the front of the line" for two new uses, said attorney Fritz Holleman, who represents the two water groups. BuRec's request is to allocate 33,493 acre feet in an environmental account for endangered species in Nebraska and 20,000 acre feet for a municipal account to be made available to the state of Wyoming for lease to Wyoming towns.

The water users say Pathfinder is already overappropriated and upstream water right holders will be damaged by the change in use. If there is enough water in Pathfinder to meet all the needs of all the water rights holders, Holleman asks why the government just doesn't "go to the end of the line" for its right.

Holleman also says the government's request violates Wyoming water law because Pathfinder was authorized for irrigation in 1904 and the requests are for new uses of the water, which state law doesn't allow.

BuRec officials also say the change in use wouldn't hurt upstream water users.