So what is going on at Ut. Lake ???

[Therapist]

There have been several comments about the lack of water at Ut. Lake. I have been checking around and I have not been able todetermine what is going on. We should have 2-3 ft. more water right now and there is less than there was in April. Anybody got any news on what is going on ??? Where is the water going ?? Who is taking it ??

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]The lake is now going down...not up. Several of us have commented that the level is dropping from recent previous trips. That is total %$#@&.

By past records, it should be several feet higher right now than it was at the end of last year. But it is only a few inches higher at best. I can still launch my float tube from the rocks off Lincoln Point. The last time I could do that was at the end of 2004...and the end of the last big drought we had. And by June of 2005 those rocks were over 6' under water.

I have an email on the way to Luke Allen, director of the Utah Lake Commission...asking if he has any input. Hopefully he can offer a hopeful explanation.
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[Fowl-Hook]

The Jordan river canal passing the AIrport is full to the top and it is a big deep ditch. Unsure as to how much irrigation exists between the Airport and Great Salt Lake that might use that much water before it is simple wasted.
Utah Lake is getting lower not higher, are the endangered June sucker not as important as we might have believed?
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[doggonefishin]

I don't know the answer either except that they are rapidly filling Jordanelle. It is now nearly at 81% full as I type this and filling rapidly. The news said that runoff would peak in the next day or two.

http://data.cuwcd.com/data/reservoirs/index.htm


Also, after a spurt of increased flow a couple weeks ago, they cut off the flow again to the lower Provo below the Olmstead diversion and it is entering the lake at far below historical averages.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ut/nwis/uv?site_no=10163000


I suspect the answer to your question is one part science, 1 part need, and 1 part politics.
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[Kent]

[quote doggonefishin]

I don't know the answer either except that they are rapidly filling Jordanelle. It is now nearly at 81% full as I type this and filling rapidly.

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It looks like someone pulled the cork out of the bottom of Jordanelle, for a few hours, around May 23rd. []
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Don't know if you saw the news on TV a couple of weeks ago, but Salt Lake has risen a couple of feet and they are putting the sailboats back in the marina.

Gotta wonder how many feet of Utah Lake has been sacrificed to raise Salt Lake even one inch.

June Suckers? There was enough water released down the Provo to accomodate their spawning run. But DWR collects the eggs and hatches them in the hatchery, so once the adults are through...and back down in the lake...there is little concern for the water levels.

As I have previously observed...there is not as much water running in the Jordan River through Salt Lake...but the canals are full...even though the rains have reduced the need for irrigation. And the canals all dump back into the Jordan at some point before the airport. Thus...lots of water leaving Utah Lake for Salt Lake...with little of it being used for anything besides raising the level of Salt Lake.

Just wondering...could this be another tactic to mess with Utah Lake and make some kind of point towards getting the okay to make the lower Provo a "delta"? There has been much opposition to that and an "ecological" disaster due to low water might be another debating point for those who want it.
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[Boatloadakids]

It doesn't seem like the water is getting to UL as it has in years past. Seems like the tributaries have always been dangerously high around this time of the year. The Prove is down again, SF River is a trickle, and even the smaller feeder streams like Spring Creek that enters at the Benjamin Slough are almost dead waters. Is the run off yet to come or has it arrived and gone? I think they are storing the run off water in Strawberry, Jordanelle, and DC to help those reservoirs recover from last years dismal snow pack. I have no issue with that... to a point.

After the lake reached a near record low last year and we had an average winter last year I was expecting the water level to increase... it did -- 2 inches, and then it went down 4 inches. How can this be?? The lake level should be up by feet not inches. Very disappointing. I hope Pat's letter to the UL Commission provides some encouraging news.

Utah Lake is probably the most neglected and abused lake in the state. Very .

BLK
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[a_bow_nut]

Went through Stawberry last week on my way to Pelican and there is very little snow left up there so I would imagine that Diomandfork would look about the same.

The only real snow that can be seen now in up on top of the Uintas.

It seems that Utah Lake is getting the same treatment as Lake Mead. They seem to be storing the water as far upstream as possible.
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[Fishrmn]

Hobble Creek has had virtually no run off for the last two years. Gotta have snow pack below 9,000 feet. We haven't had any for a while.



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[FishMcFisherson]

I think there's just going to be a river from Deer Creek to the Great Salt Lake, come August.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]So I sent an email inquiry to Luke Allen, of the Utah Lake Commission. His reply does not give much hope.
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Thanks for the email. I think that a lot of water is being kept in Jordanelle and Deer Creek. Those reservoirs have priority over Utah Lake as far as water storage. In addition, while the first part of the winter was great, the second half of winter didn't give us as much precipitation. It was a better year than the last few years, but at best it was only an average winter as far as snowfall.

We'll need a couple consecutive winters with good snowfall to fully solve this issue.

Hope that information helps.
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[fish_fear_me2]

I drove around the Lake on Saturday. The roll gates were all closed, not sure when they closed them but they were closed Saturday. The Pumps were running and The Jordan while not running like it was 2 weeks ago still has plenty of water as do the canals. The American Fork River going into the lake just above the harbor has a lot of water running in it right now. The lower Provo river is still not running too high for the temperatures and the snow pack. Since Jordanelle went in this is the case more often than not. Over all the Lake is scary low. If we dont see a big water increase by months end I am worried about the Lakes health.
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[xberto]

I suspect there are folks down stream that may have water rights, whether they use the water or not. Maybe that is what determines Jordan flow. I don't know.
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[olmoose]

It's all part of the carp eradication program, just have a river straight to the great salt lake, then let all the land dry up so a bunch of developers can make more subdivisions for more Mormons in Happy Valley.

[Therapist]

As one of those "Mormons in Happy Valley" we have enough land to build on right now. In fact, In the drought in the early 30's, that is all there was of Utah Lake, a river running in the mud flats of the lake. That prompted the addition of several boards in the dam at the Jordan river to increase the level of the Lake, hence the "compromise" level. It also flooded the " mud lake" area, south of the Airport, which infused the lake with years and years of effluent from Provo and Orem sewage, increasing the fertility of the water and contributing to the carp explosion !!

I don't think the current problem is due to the carp eradication program, because the last time the lake went dry, it contributed to the current carp problem.

So both your explanations are erroneous and something else is going on !!!