A water protection group in Jackson Hole removed the last challenge to a temporary glamping operation on state land near Teton Village on Thursday.

Protect Our Water Jackson Hole filed papers with the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council withdrawing its appeal of a controversial sewage system permit.

The group had challenged the Department of Environmental Quality’s permit allowing the canvas-dome hotel, owned by Basecamp Hospitality and known as Tammah, to operate a septic tank and leach field at the headwaters of troubled Fish Creek.

The withdrawal came after the Supreme Court ruled in April that the group could not sue to rescind the permit. “It didn’t make sense to continue down a path that had already been litigated as one in which we didn’t have adequate standing,” said Phil Powers, executive director for the group.

Protect our Water’s action followed another Wyoming Supreme Court decision on April 24 that Teton County could not impose its development regulations on Tammah. Conclusion of the two protests ends the immediate legal conflicts over the hotel that offers 11 posh fabric-covered geodesic domes with online rates topping $800 a night.

“All legal challenges and regulatory claims — brought by environmental organizations and raised by Teton County — have now been fully resolved in Basecamp’s favor, including POWJH’s recent voluntary dismissal of its appeal regarding the DEQ permit,” Basecamp attorney Chris Hawks said in an emailed statement. “With these matters behind them, Basecamp is proud to continue its partnership with the State in offering a one-of-a-kind, sustainable resort experience in Wyoming.”

Before Protect our Water withdrew its appeal, the Wyoming Supreme Court rejected Teton County’s challenge to the five-year temporary use permit, citing state laws.

The Wyoming Legislature “did not grant the County Board authority to enforce those [local] regulations when the State Board issues [temporary use permits],” Supreme Court Justice Kari Jo Gray wrote.

The advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Use of State Lands, which sided with Teton County in the legal fight, said in an email to supporters that the court’s decision “is not what we wanted.”

Nevertheless, “it is not all bad news,” the group said.

Prospects for change

There are several reasons for Teton County residents to take heart in the face of the legal loss, the group’s attorney Bill Schwartz said Thursday. First, the Supreme Court recognized that leases on state lands — commitments longer than five-year temporary use permits — subject the leasing party to county regulations.

“They noted expressly,” Schwartz said of the court, “that in connection with leases, the land board is required to make the lessee comply with county regulations.”

That’s important because Tammah should not have been approved as a temporary use, he said. A judge made that point as the case advanced to the Supreme Court, he said. In addition to the judge, legislators and residents statewide are recognizing the land board’s use of what the citizens’ group calls a loophole, Schwartz said.

“I think it’s clear [the land board] authorized this use through temporary use permits instead of leases to avoid the statutory requirements that they would have to comply with county regulations,” Schwartz said.

That awareness could bring changes to the underpinning state laws. Momentum is building, Schwartz said, to close the temporary-use loophole and also to scrutinize long-term leases that may also skirt state responsibilities to the detriment of neighbors.

Exhibit one is a lease for gravel mining on state land at the base of Casper Mountain. There, the land board on June 5 will consider renewing Prism Logistics’ lease which, Schwartz said “is literally in the middle of residential areas.”

Neighborhood worries are central to the Tammah and Casper conflicts, even though the circumstances differ. In Casper, Schwartz said local regulations should apply because the gravel mining is a lease.

The state, on the other hand, lumps gravel mining with the mining of minerals, he said. Mineral mining on state land leases is exempt from local regulations, Schwartz said. But Wyoming courts have said, for 100 years, that gravel is not a mineral, he said.

“This is not a mining operation in a sense that is meant in that exemption,” Schwartz said. “I think the gravel operations on Casper Mountain are not considered mining operations like a gold mine or coal mine because gravel is not a mineral.”

Other problems dog the state land board, Schwartz said, including what he and others perceive as inadequate public notice regarding applications for commercial operations on state lands.

“This is a great opportunity for a reset,” he said. “I think the Casper people are going to let that be known.”

The domes abide

Tammah is located on about 5 acres of a state school trust section that’s the site of seven other temporary uses. Most of the 640-acre section is leased for grazing.

Basecamp attorney Hawks said Tammah will abide. “Since entering into its lease with the State of Wyoming, Basecamp Hospitality has remained committed to environmental stewardship, compliance with all applicable laws and building standards, and delivering a distinctive guest experience at the Tammah Resort.”

Among other things, Teton County residents worry about the Tammah septic system and leach field that’s located adjacent to a wetland and at the headwaters of already polluted Fish Creek, a Class 1 waterway that’s impaired by E.coli.

After the State Board of Land Commissioners approved temporary use permits on portions of the 640-acre state school trust section near Teton Village in 2022, Teton County began abatement procedures against Basecamp/Tammah for not complying with local land use regulations.

The county sought to conduct fire and electrical inspections. The state land board sued the county to stop local enforcement, prevailing in April in the supreme court.

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