Wyo. Stat. § 41-4-502 (2026)

beneficial use of public water; duty of state engineer upon
receipt; use for irrigation purposes; defective applications;
corrections; cancellation; extensions.

On receipt of an application for a permit to acquire the right
to the beneficial use of the public water of the state of
Wyoming, which application shall be on a form prescribed or
designated by the state engineer, it is the state engineer's
duty to date the application and to make a record of receipt of
the application in his office. It is the state engineer's duty
to examine all applications to ascertain that they contain all
the necessary information to show the location, nature and
amount of the proposed beneficial use. If the proposed
beneficial use is for irrigation purposes, the application shall
give the total acreage to be irrigated and the acreage in each
legal subdivision of land proposed to be irrigated. If, upon
such examination, an application submitted in hard copy is found
defective, it is the duty of the state engineer to return the
application for correction, with reasons therefor, and the time
allowed within which to make such corrections, which shall not
be less than ninety (90) days, shall be endorsed on the
application, or by correspondence accompanying the return of the
application, and a record made thereof. A like record shall be
kept of the date of the return of corrected applications, and of
the date of the refusal and return of applications rejected. If
the application is submitted in hard copy, the defective
application shall be returned by United States postal service or
by other generally accepted mail delivery method to the post-
office address given by the applicant. If the application is
submitted electronically, the defective application shall be
returned electronically. If, at the expiration of the time
allowed within which to make such corrections, the application
has not been returned to the office of the state engineer with
the corrections properly made, it is the duty of the state
engineer to cancel the filing covered by the application. The
state engineer, if in his opinion an extension is justified, or,
upon request by the applicant for good cause shown, shall grant
extensions of time for making corrections. However, extensions
will not be granted if the request for the extension is received
after the expiration of the time period the applicant seeks to
extend.