Wed. April 12, 2006
Environmental Department Bldg.
Logan, UT

Meeting called to order by this year’s chairperson Carly Burton

Introductions were made and a special welcome was extended to Mike Styler, Director of Utah Dept. of Natural Resources. It was also noted that Dennis Strong has replaced Larry Anderson as Director of Utah Water Resources.

Review of the Bear Lake Preservation Advisory Comm. goals – Carly Burton
Successes include the implementation and refinement of a single accounting model for Bear River water and the continued cooperative spirit of the three groups. The water model is run separately by both Utah and Idaho. Discrepancies in the model are often detected and then resolved since the states use different programming.

We have learned from the last drought. The irrigation community survived through water conservation, planting reduced acreage and better communication between water users and water managers. The Bear Lake Settlement Agreement was credited by several at the meeting for saving enough water to carry the Irrigators through the drought. It was also mentioned, that without the Agreement, the storage water in Bear Lake would have been depleted (maybe as early as 2003). All irrigators benefit from water conservation. The consensus was to promote conservation efforts in the future.

A discussion of water conservation, water laws, efficiency improvements, and water use (depletion) revealed that there is wide spread misunderstanding among water users and the community in general. Examples are: use it or lose it; 5 year use rule; forfeiture vs. non-forfeiture and “extra” water gained from more efficient practices. Utah Division of Water Rights personnel stated that the limit of any water right is its beneficial use, whether it is efficient or not. It is an educational problem. Conservation is one topic that will be addressed by the Utah Water Issues Task Force.

Mud Lake – Dave Cottle
Recent and ongoing projects at the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge will give manager Rob Bundy better control of water levels and water quality within the refuge units. The St. Charles unit dike was completed last year and now enables all of the water from both arms of St. Charles Creek and Spring Creek to flow into Bear Lake without mingling with other water in Mud Lake. This keeps spawning Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout from getting lost in the marsh and improves the water quality of water entering the lake.
The Bunn Lake dike is under construction and will separate the water on the west side of the outlet channel from Mud Lake. This will allow Rob more control over the habitat in that section of the refuge.
Rob made excellent presentations on Mud Lake to both the Bear River Water Quality Task Force and to the Bear River Commission’s TAC. Several in attendance commented on Rob’s contribution to improving the refuge, his skill and knowledge and his ability to partner with others on projects and locate funding for them.

Bear River Development Act – Todd Adams
The Utah Legislature passed two bills relating to the future development of water. One bill authorized land acquisition, right of way purchases and pre-planning activities to begin on the Bear River Development Project and the Lake Powell Project. The other authorized a source of money to fund these development projects. The Lake Powell project will be started first.
The Bear River project will NOT impact any existing water rights, will NOT take any irrigation water and will NOT take any storage right water (Carly Burton).

The Wyoming legislature has appropriated $50,000 for a study of flood control sites on the Bear River above Bear Lake. The Idaho legislature also appropriated $50,000 to go the ID Dept. of Water Resources for a similar study. It was not known if IDWR has acted on the appropriation.

PacifiCorp – Connely Baldwin

Water Supply
The snow pack is still above 120%, but melting almost everywhere. The snow pack on Smith’s Fork and Thomas Fork is better that last year. As of April 10th, the flow below Cutler was 5,000 cfs (1,100 cfs spilling), below Oneida the flow is 2,200 cfs and with every drop being stored in the lake, the flow into Soda is 1,000 cfs. Bear Lake is very near last year’s high elevation.

Name Change
PacifiCorp was officially acquired by MidAmerica Energy Holding (Warren Buffet) on 3/21/06. The “successor in interest” clauses in the contract mean that there will be no change in the way PacifiCorp does business. Ie. no change to irrigation contracts, the 3 state agreement or the Settlement Agreement. The power generation part of the company will be called PacifiCorp Energy. The transmission and electrical supply part will be Rocky Mtn. Power in Idaho and Wyoming and will remain Utah Power in Utah.

Woodruff Narrows Reservoir
The unofficial guess on when Bear Lake reaches 5911 ft. is May 9th. Connely was sure that Jack would be calling regularly for the official announcement.

Small Irrigator Status
Utah Small Pumpers president is John Allen. They are incorporated, functioning and allocating water among their users. They are also establishing procedures for leasing water among shareholders.
Idaho Small Pumpers president is Steve Meek. They are also organized, incorporated and functioning. They are presently working with PacifiCorp Energy to sign their agreement.

Miscellaneous Comments
The water year for Bear Lake is Oct. 1st to Sept 30th.
Bear Lake Settlement Agreement states no new water contracts. The settlement agreement put the communications together to enable better water management. The canal companies began working together instead of against each other.
Water vernacular – Natural flow is brown water and storage water is blue water!

2006 Allocation
Net runoff is the amount of water available to be stored at Bear Lake. It equals inflow from Bear River + inflow from the Bear Lake Valley tributaries + groundwater inflow – evaporation. The amount of groundwater inflow is a guesstimate. Net runoff could be a negative number if evaporation exceeds the inflows. It was negative in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Estimated Max Spring Elevation of Bear Lake is 5914.0 ft.
2006 Irrigation Allocation is 225,000 acre feet

Three State Agreement
Signed between PacifiCorp and Idaho, Utah and Wyoming in 1999. It established, in part, the PTE (PacifiCorp Target Elevation) used for lake level elevation and flood control. The PTE range is between 5916 and 5920 ft. The PTE establishes a target elevation that the lake should reach by March 31st in order allow sufficient storage capacity in the lake so as to prevent flooding downstream during spring runoff. The PTE could be set as early a August 1st and can be re-evaluated and adjusted throughout the winter.

Bear River Water Users Association – Carly Burton
Gale Moeser is President and Charles Holmgren is Vice President. BRWUA will work with both small pumper groups and offered them membership in BRWUA. They are still committed to working with PacifiCorp and Bear Lake Watch to review water permits and protest if necessary (no new depletion). They are completing the installation of devices to automate the flows on the canals in conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation.

Bear Lake Watch – Claudia Cottle
Noxious Weeds – Kelly Allen
Utah State Lands received $10,000 for weed control on the Utah side of Bear Lake sate lands. The Rich Co. weed control specialist sprayed all tamarisk in those lands last fall. The efforts to offer money ($10/hr.) to people to pull dyer’s woad had very few takers. Utah is hoping the Phragmities will get flooded out or eroded away by the wave action. Bear Lake county and Rich county weed control units are teaming together to make posters that identify the noxious weeds and give guidance on their extermination.

Bear Lake fishes – Scott Tolentino
Spawning by the Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout in Swan Creek was not badly impacted by the drought. Spawning in St. Charles Creek was. The high water should help. The St. Charles Working Group is installing better (more fish friendly) diversion structures and screening ditches. He estimates that 85% of the trout presently in the lake are from the hatchery and Swan Creek brood fish. The state uses two hatcheries and plants fish in the 7 to 8 inch range.

Bear Lake Comprehensive Management Plan – Kelly Allen
The CMP (Comprehensive Management Plan) for Bear Lake is being drafted and should be out for public comment shortly. There will be public meeting in June or July

Bear Lake Studies – Dave Cottle
Bear Lake Watch is working with Utah State University to initiate graduate or doctoral studies in three areas of the Bear Lake ecosystem: evaporation, the littoral zone and Mud Lake. Partnerships and grants will be the source of funding.

Automation
Automation of the diversions and main stem flows is proceeding very rapidly with the help of state funds and Roger Hansen of the Bureau of Reclamation. The Utah section of river around Randolph and Woodruff is fully automated. Wyoming has the area around Cokeville automated and has $90,000 for automation of the Evanston area. BRWUA is completing automation of the canal companies and the small pumpers are automated. Bear Lake elevation gagging is being automated in a project sponsored by Bear Lake Watch partnered with PacifiCorp, Bear Lake State Parks (both Utah and Idaho), the Bureau of Reclamation, Cisco’s Landing and the Bear Lake Yacht Club.

Water Protests – Claudia Conder
For almost 10 years after the Settlement Agreement was signed, PacifiCorp, BRWUA and Bear Lake Watch protested new water applications and appropriations in Utah and Idaho until Idaho completed their Ground Water Management Plan in 2003. This plan tries to keep everyone’s water right whole while new development occurs. The plan calls for developers to prepare a mitigation plan that identifies which water rights will be used for the development and how much land will be “dried up” so that there is no additional new depletion. PacifiCorp has historically led the protests and shouldered the costs. The Ground Water Management Plan was supposed to eliminate the protests, but confusion in several areas of the mitigation plan has led to new protests and legal action. PacifiCorp, BRWUA and Bear Lake Watch together are working with IDWR to identify the areas of confusion in the mitigation process, develop or clarify the procedures, and work with the Planning and Zoning committees, lawyers and water engineers to improve compliance, develop a review committee to work with developers and, hopefully, eliminate the delays and protests. In short, be proactive to head off protests. A win-win for all!

Next year's meeting is April 10th, 1007