04-20-2006, 03:37 PM
Thursday, April 20, 2006 Rising water threatens new improvements at Utah Lake [url "javascript: void(0);"] PDF [/url] [url "javascript:void(0)"] | Print | [/url] [url "javascript: void(0);"] E-mail [/url]
CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald
Even as they accepted perhaps the largest gift ever made to Utah Lake State Park, officials were fighting to save the harbor.
So high is the lake that when the wind blows, water is overtopping the new south jetty and has already eroded it 1-1/2 feet in some places, said Ty Hunter, park director.
"We basically went into an emergency situation to save the investment we've placed out there," Hunter said.
Hoping to improve boating on Utah Lake, crews have spent more than $1 million working to reconfigure the harbor, which had been made up of two parallel earth-and-concrete berms.
Because the parallel design allowed the harbor to collect wind-blown silt, making it more shallow each year, last year the Army Corps of Engineers removed 800 feet of the existing 2,000-foot-long south jetty. A new arm of the south jetty was then added, extending toward the north jetty at a 90-degree angle.
The two jetties now come together to form a mouth about 100 feet wide, but the south jetty "takes the full brunt of the lake," Hunter said.
Crews have built a four-foot rock berm on the west side of the jetty "to stop the wave action and prevent the worst case, a breach of the jetty," he said. "We are just hoping that will minimize the damage. We know there is going to be some damage."
Without the berm, the new jetty would have disappeared, he said.
"We would have gone back to square one," Hunter said.
The park has applied for money to raise the entire jetty another three to four feet, he said. How soon that money could be approved or denied is unknown.
Everyone agrees the lake will continue to rise, Hunter said. Predictions of how much it will rise vary from one to two feet. Either amount would submerge the jetty.[url "http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/176155/"]Click here [/url]for the full story on harktheherald.com
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CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald
Even as they accepted perhaps the largest gift ever made to Utah Lake State Park, officials were fighting to save the harbor.
So high is the lake that when the wind blows, water is overtopping the new south jetty and has already eroded it 1-1/2 feet in some places, said Ty Hunter, park director.
"We basically went into an emergency situation to save the investment we've placed out there," Hunter said.
Hoping to improve boating on Utah Lake, crews have spent more than $1 million working to reconfigure the harbor, which had been made up of two parallel earth-and-concrete berms.
Because the parallel design allowed the harbor to collect wind-blown silt, making it more shallow each year, last year the Army Corps of Engineers removed 800 feet of the existing 2,000-foot-long south jetty. A new arm of the south jetty was then added, extending toward the north jetty at a 90-degree angle.
The two jetties now come together to form a mouth about 100 feet wide, but the south jetty "takes the full brunt of the lake," Hunter said.
Crews have built a four-foot rock berm on the west side of the jetty "to stop the wave action and prevent the worst case, a breach of the jetty," he said. "We are just hoping that will minimize the damage. We know there is going to be some damage."
Without the berm, the new jetty would have disappeared, he said.
"We would have gone back to square one," Hunter said.
The park has applied for money to raise the entire jetty another three to four feet, he said. How soon that money could be approved or denied is unknown.
Everyone agrees the lake will continue to rise, Hunter said. Predictions of how much it will rise vary from one to two feet. Either amount would submerge the jetty.[url "http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/176155/"]Click here [/url]for the full story on harktheherald.com
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