Bear River Commission Meeting
April 18-19 2005 in Salt Lake City
Water Quality Committee
EPA Grant Update
Jeff Horsburgh from USU gave an update and demonstration of the Watershed
Information System (WIS). It will centralize all information about the
Bear River Basin in a web based, user friendly format. Development of
the site, www.bearriverinfo.org is ahead of schedule.
Idaho National Lab still not under contract for modeling and will be
advised that the Commission is looking elsewhere for a modeler.
Status of TMDL/Watershed Efforts
Utah – Walt Baker Utah has 25 watersheds with 125 streams on the
303(d) list. The state hasn’t been sued for lack of compliance.
They expect completion of the TMDL process by 2012. Current problem
TMDLs are Utah Lake, Jordan River and the Weber River. The Great Salt
Lake is unique and has no numeric standards. Utah is initiating a selenium
study in conjunction with the Bingham Copper Mine ground water study.
The TMDL for the Upper Bear River was awarded to CIRRUS of Logan. The
TMDLs for the State line to Cutler (includes Cutler) and for the Cub
River may be revised.
Idaho – Barry Burnell Idaho was sued in the ‘90s which
resulted in a 8 year schedule to complete the TMDLs – by 2007.
The Bear River TMDL is out for public comment. Five municipalities (on
the Bear) will be over the Phosphorous limit when the TMDL is effective.
Idaho has adopted reuse rules for waste water land application.
Wyoming – John Wagner The Bear River above Woodruff Narrows is
listed but WY uses public watershed groups. The Wyoming DEQ will decide
this Fall whether or not to accept the Upper Bear River Watershed Group’s
proposal which was just completed.
Funds Being Spent on Water Quality Improvement
Wyoming – Initially most of the money for water quality improvements
were 319 dollars. Now it is mostly EQIP. The NRCS is starting to coordinate
efforts within the basin and even across state lines. Presently in the
Bear River Basin no 319 money or State Revolving Fund money is being
used, nor are there any water quality improvement applications. The
Wyoming Water Development Council is using water quality improvements
as rational for justification of storage / water development.
The Wyoming NRCS helps in the water quality arena by 1) establishing
base conservation practices through one on one meetings with individual
landowners, 2) administering the Farm Bill Program which includes EQIP
and CRP, 3) administering the Agriculture Management Assistance program
and 4) providing technical assistance to the groups developing watershed
plans. Wyoming sets state wide priorities for EQIP money.
The Upper Bear Basin Advisory Group will submit their watershed plan
for public comment by 5/1/05 and then to EPA later this year. It has
water quality monitoring built into the plan. Lincon county (Cokeville)
is implementing water quality monitoring on the Bear and Smith’s
Fork. The Wyoming state legislature has funded additional money for
watershed planning (in addition to the 319 money).
Idaho – There have been significant increases in EQIP money spent
on water quality from 2000 to 2005. The present level is nearly $15
Million. Local work groups prioritize the projects. $500,000 has been
spent in Bear Lake County and $495,000 in Franklin County. Both Bear
Lake and Caribou counties did not fund all their applications. There
is no estimate on the water quality improvements achieved by all the
money spent. The Idaho DEQ and NRCS are working to coordinate a joint
scoring for potential projects that will help target issues and problems
but not local areas.
Discussion on improving coordination between states
- develop joint projects that could leverage 319/EQIP money
- design programs that go beyond EQIP
- revisit the MOU between DEQ and NRCS so new personnel know the relationship
- Utah Partners for Conservation project
Discussion about erasing state lines & measuring results of water
quality efforts
- we want to measure results, not how much money has been spent
- establish coordinated tri-state water quality monitoring to determine
regional trends
- water quality monitoring money is difficult to obtain
- W. Baker (UT) will tackle problem identification issues and compile
suggestions
- L. Van Every (ID) will draft a basin wide water quality monitoring
concept
Legislative Changes
Utah
- State Engineer granted much broader powers in areas of water misuse
- Will tackle waste water reuse issue.
- Move away from coliform to e-coli standards
- Beneficial uses to be more public based vs. made in the office
- Try to do a better job of marrying water quality and quantity
Idaho
- Legislative joint memorial resolution passed Feb 28th to support the
efforts of Eulalie Langford to get the US Army Corps of Engineers to
study flood control above Bear Lake.
- HB 145 gives authorization to create watershed advisory groups in
recommended by DEQ
- Water quality standards moving away from mercury in the water column
to methyl mercury in fish tissue.
Wyoming
- Has copied Idaho’s resolution on a storage study.
- Does not have primacy for drinking water (the only state)
- Will go to a paperless system statewide
- Also converting to e- coli standard.
Records & Public Involvement Committee
Gordon Thornock (WY) is new chair
USGS – Pat Lambert
New feature on USGS web site called “Stream stats” is up
and running for Idaho. It should be up for Utah very shortly. Idaho’s
site is the most advanced.
50% of the Bear River Commission budget is for stream gauging
Automation of gauging - Bob Fotheringham
Radio towers are being installed on the Utah small pumpers. About 30%
are installing measuring devices using acoustical sensing. The rest
will just monitor on-off. The Utah Dept of Water Resources is paying
for this. It should be up and running this summer.
Jade Henderson
Wyoming pays for the telemetry and recording equipment. Individual irrigators
pay for the measuring devices. The Bureau of Reclamation should begin
installation in May.
Carly Burton
The Bear River Water Users Assoc. is working with the Bureau of Rec.
for installation of devices and equipment at 2 canals on Last Chance,
1 on West Cache and 1 at Cub River. It is a 1/3 cost share between Bureau
of Rec., BRWUA and the individual canal company. They should be installed
by mid May.
Connely Baldwin
The elevations of the reservoirs (Bear Lake not included) should be
available to the modelers via e-mail or FTP shortly. There needs to
be someone to load the data so it will only be available Mon-Fri.
The Rainbow Canal gauge needs to be moved upstream. When Mud Lake is
high, the backed up water causes a shift in the readings.
Connely is pushing PacifiCorp to automate the Bear Lake readings.
According to Ron Hoffman at Woodruff Narrows, the automation has stopped
some of the internal bickering about who is getting what (how much water).
Future Public Events – no conclusions
Websites of interest – Claudia Cottle
Definition – “Normal water or snow year” is a moving
30 year average that is adjusted every 10 years. The present range is
1971 to 2000.
The TAC is considering a Bear River Commission web site.
Operations Committee
Rod Wallentine is the new chair
Only pre-Compact storage is allowed at Woodruff Narrows (31,000 acre
feet) and that level was reached on April 7th. They have been releasing
100 cfs more than inflow but will shortly let the level creep back up
to 31,000. Water users in upper Utah can start irrigating on May 1st.
There are no dates restricting irrigation in Wyoming.
There are usually two peaks in the runoff. One when the lower elevation
snow melts, the second is usually in late May when the higher elevation
snow melts.
Central Division – About 600 cfs is flowing over Pixley Dam and
there is about 900 cfs at Rainbow Canal (900 cfs = 1800 acre feet per
day). The Central Division is expected to go into regulation
Lower Division – The snow pack in Cache Valley is very good and
hopefully will provide enough natural flow that there will be very little
demand on Bear Lake storage water.
There was discussion about how delivery schedule changes are reported
and then incorporated into the model. The states will conduct audits
of the changes and the TAC will follow up.
General Meeting
Dee Hansen - Federal Chair
Randy Budge for Dean Mathews (Idaho)
Hal Anderson for Karl Dreher (Idaho)
Treasures report – The Commissions budget is
$114,000. Each state pays $35,000 yearly.
Charles Holmgren elected Vice Chair
Water Supply – Randy Julander
The snow pack in the Upper Division is 95% of normal, in the
Central Division 87 % and in the Lower Division 103 %. The soil moisture
is much better that last year due to the fall rains. The lower elevation
moisture is melting fast, especially at the north end of the basin.
The stream flow forecasts show Stewart Dam at 55% of normal. Last year
it was 40%.
The May-July long range forecasts show no clear indication of above
or below precipitation or temperatures.
Utah State Engineer – Jerry Olds
The litigation over last year’s shut off of water was ultimately
a good thing. It brought many of the issues into perspective. The case
has worked its way through the court system. Utah has passed bills giving
the State Engineer more authority to enforce water laws.
PacifiCorp – Connely Baldwin
Each pump at Lifton can put out 500 cfs when the lake is full. About
5 cfs leaks from the outlet canal so there is always some water in it.
The lake as of April 1st was 5904.63 ft. Given the scenarios of other
similar wet years, the lake could reach 5911.90 if it was as wet as
1980 or 5908.90 if you assume the 1993 conditions.
The forecast high is 5907 ft giving an irrigation allocation of 141,000
acre feet. Again, going to the 1980 conditions, the actual release from
storage was only 97,000 AF and in 1993 the release was 84,000 AF.
Last year, 7,900 AF of storage water were not used by the irrigators
and remained in the lake.
Status of Utah Pumpers – Jerry Kinghorn
The Utah pumpers have organized as the Bear River Small Irrigation Association,
Inc. and are represented by Jerry Kinghorn. The Board of Directors is
seated and they have signed an agreement with PacifiCorp. They are in
the process of dividing their allocation among their members.
Status of Idaho Pumpers – Jody Williams
The Idaho pumpers are not far behind their Utah counterparts. They have
incorporated as the Bear River Small Irrigation Association of Idaho
and are represented by Steve Meeks. They are working on bylaws and will
then vote on the contract with PacifiCorp. They are all monitored and
have measuring devices.
Both groups have the opportunity to join the BRWUA
Additional Storage
Wyoming
- Has copied Idaho’s resolution supporting a USACOE study on flood
control sites.
- It differs from Idaho’s in that it does not support replacement
storage for Bear Lake
- WY supports the efforts for additional storage on Smith’s Fork
Idaho
- House Joint Memorial 1 passed in the Idaho legislature
- ID delegation supports a study of additional storage (basin wide)
with no attempts to alter the Bear River Compact
- Had questions about the validity the recitals at the beginning of
the resolution
The TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) will report to the Commission
on “How PacifiCorp operates Bear Lake for flood control (from
5918 to full pool)”. They will investigate how much storage is
(and has been) lost and ways to change the policy.
Eulalie Langford reminded the Commission that the development of additional
storage is in Article 1 of the Bear River Compact
The Idaho delegation made a motion, so as to not leave any uncertainty
for Ms Langford, that the Bear River Commission go on record as supporting
studies to determine the feasibility of storage, including upstream
of Bear Lake. A roll call vote was 5 yes, 3 no and 1 abstention. The
motion failed for lack of 2/3 majority vote.
Engineer Manager Report
Expect a water call in the Upper and Central Divisions but not in the
Lower Division
TAC meeting is June 23rd
Next Bear River Commission meeting is November 1, 2005.
State Reports
Wyoming
- Still in drought except for Bear River basin
- Discussion of Colorado Compact negotiations
- Wyoming passed laws similar to Utah’s for water theft
- Converting to all electronic offices
Idaho
- Big problems with conjunctive use (ground water users effecting surface
water users). Idaho issues an order today in the Snake River Valley
that is expected to end up in the Idaho Supreme Court.
- Trying to make changes in the Idaho water budget by reducing demand
and enhancing supply. Idaho has spent $24M on acquisition of water rights
to keep in the public trust. Presently, the Bureau of Rec. is leasing
this water for salmon spawning.
- Has formed ground water districts
- Signed agreement with Nez Perce
Utah
- Legislative actions passed strengthening the State Engineers powers
- Current legislative activity concerning over allocation of ground
water and ownership of reused water
- Expects report of Water Delivery Funding Task Force (for Lake Powell
water and Bear River water) by July 1.
