It's time, Jordan River

[SBennett]

FYI.
The water control gate to the Jordan River was opened a few hours ago.
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[albinotrout]

Well there goes the lake level on UL.[crazy] Oh well nothing we can do there.
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[SBennett]

Amen.
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[SkunkedAgain]

So I'm not familiar with why they open the gates... Is it irrigation related? I planted an apple tree last weekend and couldn't believe how dry the soil is already and how far down the moisture is already gone... It's going to be a tough year for us water shortage wise... I think we will really see what water shortage is this year... Hope not, but unless things really change we're in trouble... Later J
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[FishSlayerJT]

you can store up to 100 gal of rainwater now... http://www.waterrights.utah.gov/forms/rainwater.asp...
not sure what the opening of the gate means... lets hope for 100" next month
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[SBennett]

I live in Riverton and am already seeing plants stress that are on my south facing exposure.
I dug up 5 pines 2 days ago that did not make it and the ground was powder dry.
The last two years of low water had me very concerned.
This year I am very scared.
Boating after July 4 is going to be extremely difficult on a lot of our waters. That in turn will double the pressure on the waters you can boat on. Watch out Flaming Gorge and Strawberry!
Quagga mussel in Deer Creek is not helping at all either.
I just hope the low water does not cause massive fish kills at Willard and Utah Lake.

The upside? This WILL be the year to get a killer deal on a boat.
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[SBennett]

Opening the gates is how water flows out of Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake via the Jordan River.
The gates have been 100% shut all winter, hardly a drop of water has left Utah Lake for 5 or 6 months.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Somehow the 100 gallons won't do me much good on my farm, but hey it's better than nothing... the gates is what holds the water in Utah lake rather than letting them flow to Salt Lake... Later J
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[kblack1844]

To answer your question of why they open the gates each year. It is so they can take what might have been somewhat useful water and send it down to the salty waters of the great salt lake where it can become completely useless water. No, I'm sure there's some highly intelligent reason for it, such as the miniscule amount of lake effect snow it puts back into the mountains and so forth.
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[a_bow_nut]

[quote kblack1844]To answer your question of why they open the gates each year. It is so they can take what might have been somewhat useful water and send it down to the salty waters of the great salt lake where it can become completely useless water. No, I'm sure there's some highly intelligent reason for it, such as the miniscule amount of lake effect snow it puts back into the mountains and so forth.[/quote]

Not to mention all of the worthless thousands of acres farmland to grow worthless crops and the worthless marshes for the worthless waterfowl to live on.

Good god what are they thinking.
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[KodiakFisher]

I was wondering if they were opening the gates for farms downstream. Thanks for the worthless answer []
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[SkunkedAgain]

I agree with your points completely... wish I had some extra cash for when those boat deals show up... But guess I'll be happy with my beater boat, got a few things fixed this winter so I'm hoping for a better year... I didn't fix the prop though, knew I'd probably ding it some more this year... Well let's hope the rains show to save the day... Later J
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[SkunkedAgain]

I kind of doubt that the gates are opened just to send it to the salt lake, but it seems really early for irrigation to begin.... Mid March that's crazy early... Long summer a head of us... Later J
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[Lettsfish]

There are quite a few downstream users that own water rights and by law are entitled to receive water. Those actually include some very senior water rights owned by some of the pricey duck clubs.

The system is what it is.
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[SBennett]

Are you a duck shooter too?
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[Lettsfish]

Not for the last 5 or 6 years. And not a member of any duck club, although I've had the good fortune to be a guest a couple of times
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]What a lot of folks don't understand is that it is virtually impossible for those who control the gates to ration the water down to the last drop allocated to downstream water users. They have to open the gates to flow at a specified rate in order to keep the system full enough to back up behind headgates and direct water off in other directions. It's not just to raise the level of Salt Lake.

I remember the summer of 1983. There had been a monstrous snowpack in the mountains and the huge runoff caused Utah Lake to flood...water backed up into the fields and a Mississippi river going down the Jordan. Oh yeah, that was the year I could look down from my office window downtown in Salt Lake and watch City Creek pouring down the street below.

Why does it always have to be feast or famine?
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[SkunkedAgain]

Yup that's what I'd expect. Just strange to see it start so early this year. Fishing is more or less a secondary benefit from all our irrigation storage locations and I know most recreationalists don't like to think of it that way but agriculture built all the water storage ponds to start with and without them all the water would already be in the salt lake and unuseful to us. So we need to keep that in mind whenever we see something that sucks for fishing we need to say oh well at least we can fish on good years. I guess there are some dams now that we're built for urban water storage but they run about the same way too. Pray for moisture. Later J
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[FishMcFisherson]

Would it be a good idea to build a reservoir just before the Great Salt Lake on the Jordan to save the fresh water from flowing into gsl? Is there any use of the water flowing into the gsl, anyways? Seems like a big waste of water.
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[wagdog]

I've often wondered the same thing. I'm a transplant though so I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the Great Salt Lake and it's water usage. I know a lots of waterfowlers nuke birds out there and that is about it. I remember a few years ago when we had a ton of snow and flooding was a huge concern. We let all the water just go into the Great Salt Lake. Yes it was used for other things and all. I would imagine water management is a very hard problem to solve in one of the driest states in the union. I'll do my part and let my lawn stay brown :-)
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