The Wyoming Supreme Court has dismissed a Teton County water-protection group’s challenge of a state-issued sewage permit for a glamping hotel in a polluted watershed. The court ruled Tuesday that the nonprofit Protect our Water Jackson Hole doesn’t have standing — sufficient stake or inve stment in the issue — to challenge a Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality permit issued to the glamping owners. Although Protect Our Water is not the object of the DEQ decision, it claims to be affected by the development’s impacts, thereby allowing it to sue, its lawyers maintained. The Supreme Court said some of POWJH’s arguments were vague — and that it hadn’t met other requirements — as the justices sided with a lower court that had dismissed the complaint. “We are unable to conclude that POWJH has shown a tangible interest in the water quality in Fish Creek that is distinguishable from any other member of the general public,” Chief Justice Kate Fox wrote for the court. The interests of POWJH and its supporters are real, the group’s executive director Phil Powers said. “We live in a beautiful single-source aquifer on the Snake River,” he said, “it’s fragile and we need to protect it.” “It is difficult to tell exactly what ‘stakeholder involvement’ might mean or how that might improve water quality.” Kate Fox Protect Our Water claimed that DEQ had turned over its responsibility to issue permits to Teton County and therefore had no authority to approve sewerage for glamping operator Basecamp. The Utah business operates the Tammah fabric-covered dome hotel on state school trust land in the Fish Creek drainage west of the Snake River near the ski resort at Teton Village. “Somehow Tammah managed to get a permit directly from the state,” Powers said. “That just skipped over the expectations we have in the county — we think that’s inappropriate.” DEQ lists Fish Creek as a Class I waterway, meaning it should receive the highest level of protection. In 2020, the agency concluded the creek was impaired for the purposes of recreation — people fish there and float down the creek in innertubes — due to E. coli. The harmful bacteria can cause illness and death and is associated with sewage. Drastic development threatens the watershed with other pollutants, Teton County officials say. The water-quality group has fought pollution in the area and seeks to help Teton County abate pollution. “You can’t just run roughshod over that shallow aquifer,” Powers said, “and expect all of us to maintain clean drinking water and great recreation water as well.”  To demonstrate its bona fides and interests, POWJH said it has spent approximately $164,000 for water quality monitoring in Fish Creek, another $88,000 for stakeholder involvement and some $250,000 for the Teton County Water Quality Master Plan. Protect Our Water “briefly alleges that its ‘supporters’ use Fish Creek ‘for a variety of recreational, scenic, and aesthetic purposes,’” the court said in summarizing the complaint. That’s not enough Without challenging POWJH’s assertions regarding its expenditures and supporters’ use of Fish Creek, the court rejected the group’s challenge. It based its decision on the “standing” issue and said the organization’s arguments were vague. POWJH alleged “its water quality initiatives were intended to ‘improve’ the water quality in Fish Creek and … the activity authorized by the permit will harm that water quality,” the court wrote. But the group “has not described any improvements that have actually resulted from its efforts. “It is difficult to tell exactly what ‘stakeholder involvement’ might mean or how that might improve water quality,” the decision reads. “Likewise, POWJH has done nothing to elaborate on ‘the Water Quality Master Plan process’ except to say that it ‘is underway in Teton County and has important implications for the Fish Creek watershed.’ “Just what these implications are is not apparent from POWJH’s submissions,” Chief Justice Fox wrote. “Finally, though POWJH claims that its supporters use Fish Creek for certain recreational purposes, it does not identify them, allege that those supporters are formally affiliated with POWJH, or make any attempt to claim standing through any of its members or affiliates,” the opinion reads. The group doesn’t explain how pollution will hinder its efforts to monitor water quality, involve stakeholders and work on a water quality master plan with Teton County, the decision said. Those were key elements in POWJH’s arguments. Protect Our Water “has not sufficiently described its three listed activities so that even a favorable reading of the complaint could support a conclusion that those particular activities would become more expensive due to a reduction in water quality,” Fox wrote. The Basecamp/Tammah glamping hotel has drawn significant opposition in Teton County ever since 2020, when the Legislature targeted state land in wealthy and expensive Jackson-area for revenue-generating development. Opponents object to a lax oversight and permitting, changing development sideboards and other problems at the development along a scenic road. Basecamp and Tammah have repeatedly said they have abided by all conditions required in their lease of the state property. 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