Wyoming Administrative Code › Agency 037 - Engineer, State › Sub-Agency 0007 - Board of Control - Water Administration › Chapter 6 - CONTESTED CASE PROCEDURES › Section 6-3 - Notice and Service

Current through July 13, 2024
(a) Notice and
				service on all contested cases shall be given in accordance with W.S. 16-3-107.
				A contested case may be initiated by objection being made to a proof of
				appropriation or construction, by the filing of an abandonment action, or by
				objections raised to a proposed change of use or change in point of diversion,
				etc. In cases where the Board is required to hold a hearing in determining the
				extent of an appropriator's water rights without any adverse party being
				present, contested case procedures as to notice and service shall be observed
				by the Board and by all persons who appear as parties.
(b) In a contested case, any person whom the
				Board knows to have an interest in the matter shall be given notice of the
				proceedings and of all motions or pleadings by acknowledged personal service or
				by certified mail, return receipt requested. Unless otherwise required by law,
				if the Board determines that at least twenty (20) persons require notice of the
				proceeding, the Board, in lieu of requiring notice by certified mail with
				return receipt requested, may allow the petitioner to provide notice of the
				proceeding by regular mail and publication. All unknown persons shall be
				notified through publication. Notice by certified or regular mail shall be
				provided not less than thirty (30) nor more than sixty (60) days before the
				date of the hearing. Notice by publication under this subsection shall be
				accomplished by publishing notice for two (2) consecutive weeks in a newspaper
				of general circulation in the county where the appropriation involved is
				situated. The last date of publication shall occur not less than ten (10) days
				and not more than thirty (30) days prior to the hearing. After all persons
				wishing to appear as parties have made themselves known, usually at the
				commencement of a hearing, further notice and service may be made personally at
				the hearing or by first class mail to the addresses given by the parties.
				However, the record of the proceedings must be documented in some fashion, such
				as by transcript notation or by letter copy.
(c) Proofs of certified mailings, whether
				made by the Board or by any party shall be made part of the record. Affidavits
				of publication and notice by regular mail shall likewise be made a part of the
				record.
(d) The moving party,
				whether contestant or contestee, shall be responsible for paying publication
				charges and may be assessed for the Board's mailing costs connected with a
				contested case proceedings.
(e) The
				hearing officer may give personal notice to any party at a hearing in any
				manner so long as the fact of service is documented in the record of the
				proceedings.
(f) In an action for
				involuntary abandonment of water rights, the petitioner (contestant) shall
				search all readily available public records to identify all persons who may
				have any interest in the appropriation or appropriations for which the
				declaration of abandonment is sought. A list of such persons with their mailing
				addresses and respective land ownership interests shall be filed in the Board's
				Cheyenne office with the petition for declaration for abandonment. Within three
				working days, the Board's staff shall determine if the petition and
				accompanying list of affected persons appears to be complete. If so determined,
				the Board's staff shall by the end of the third day send a copy of the petition
				by certified mail to all persons believed by the petitioner or Board's staff to
				have any interest in the matter. The action on the petition for declaration of
				abandonment shall be deemed as having commenced at the close of business on the
				day the petition was filed. If the Board's staff determines that the petition
				and supporting documents are inadequate to give notice to all persons believed
				to have an interest in the matter, or in any other particular, the original
				papers filed in the Board's Cheyenne office shall be returned to the petitioner
				by the end of the third by certified mail with a letter explaining any noted
				deficiency. A copy of the petition and supporting documents shall be kept for
				record purposes, but no action shall be deemed to have commenced as a result of
				the filing of a deficient petition for declaration of abandonment. However,
				there shall be no restriction of the correction and refiling of a deficient
				petition.
(g) Each party in any
				contested case is required to keep the hearing officer and all other parties
				informed of his current mailing address and telephone number or that of his
				authorized attorney.