Water Quality Committee
State Reports / State Legislative Action
Utah – Walt Baker
- Utah DEQ has established a fund for non-point source grants. Grants up to $100K can be approved without Board approval.
- The Great Salt Lake Initiative is initiating a TMDL for the Great Salt Lake. Mercury studies utilizing avian tissue sampling will be included. There is growing evidence that the wetlands surrounding the GSL are not meeting their beneficial uses.
- Anti degradation standards may be changing.

Idaho – Barry Burnell
- Idaho is actively looking for Mercury contamination in fish and birds. 50 lakes will be sampled in 2007 and 50 rivers next year. About 75% of the lakes samples have been collected. 50% of those samples show mercury exceedances.
- Idaho’s Integrated Report is due out in December 2007.

Wyoming – Jack Smith
- Wyoming is switching to the TMDL process. The Watershed group produced some very good plans but not enough action to keep the EPA happy. They will be initiating the Bear River TMDL in 2009. With the delay in getting programs on the ground, WY is now facing back-loaded TMDLs.
- The Wyoming Integrated Report is due out soon. There are no new listings on the Bear River.
- Wyoming farmers are not using 319 money for water quality projects because there have been no TMDLs to comply with.
- Wyoming is receiving pressure from Western Watersheds to accept third party data on the Thomas Fork and Smith’s Fork drainages.

EPA Grant Update – Jack Barnett
The EPA Targeted Watershed Grant is on track except for the water pollution trading portion. The modeling effort is now essentially complete and the trading aspect can now progress. A draft of the final report of the grant is due Aug. 1, 2008. There are some unobligated funds that might be used to “tell the story” of the grant at other symposiums.
An agreement between the three states and USU will provide for the continued funding for full development and maintenance of the Watershed Information System (WIS).

Bear River Water Quality Task Force - Mitch Poulsen
- Another 2 year grant was awarded from Utah DEQ 319 funding to continue the Task Force Information & Education efforts.
- Claudia Cottle has completed the Task Force web site. It is posted at www.brbwqtf.org (also at www.brwqtf.org)
- The Task Force is still involved in the Tri State Monitoring effort and the USU Mud Lake monitoring project.
- Mitch has attended several meetings with NRCS and SWCDs to let them know about the BRWQTF.

Tri State Monitoring – Lynn Van Every
This monitoring has now completed the first year’s samples. Nothing out of the ordinary has been noted. The draft report is available for comment at the Idaho DEQ website. It’s interesting that inorganic Nitrogen is virtually nonexistent above Bear Lake, but below the Nounan reach of the river, increases dramatically. Nitrogen may be more important as a nutrient that previously thought.

USACOE Proposal
The Army Corps of Engineers proposal to make the Bear River a pilot project was turned down but the Corps would like to write up the Bear River operation anyway.

Records & Public Involvement Committee – Charles Holmgren

Recent Events
The Pollution Trading Workshop in Logan on July 19th was very informative and very successful. There were mostly representatives from point sources of pollution in attendance. Feedback indicated that Logan City may be interested in pollution trading.
The Bear River Symposium held September 5-7 in Logan was also successful. Tours of Cutler Reservoir and the Cub River area got great reviews. The EPA grant components were presented (as part of the Education and Outreach component of the grant) as well as numerous other topics dealing with water quality and the Bear River.

Future Public Events
It was agreed that future events be schedule about every 2 or 3 years.

Commission Website
The Bear River Commission website, at www.bearrivercommission.org, has expanded information and functionality. The is a good historical library that includes things like the Bear River Compacts, the Kimball and Deitrich Decrees, and past Commission meeting notes.

Stonefly website
The Commission is funding the Stonefly website that hosts the real time stream flow/diversion data. The maintenance rate is $6,000 annually. Additional sites may be added for a cost.

Automation of more gages
The Commission is taking a more proactive role in encouraging the automation of additional gages on the Bear River system. (See Operations Committee – Lower Division)

Publications of Interest

Bear River – Last Chance to Change Course by Craig Denton

USGS studies on Bear Lake
Acoustic stratigraphy of Bear Lake, Utah–Idaho—Late Quaternary sedimentation patterns in a simple half-graben - Steven M. Colman
Influence of the diversion of Bear River into Bear Lake (Utah and Idaho) on the environment of deposition of carbonate minerals - Walter E. Dean and Richard M. Forester
Unusual Holocene and late Pleistocene carbonate sedimentation in Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho, USA - Walter Dean, Joseph Rosenbaum, Gary Skipp, Steven Colman, Richard Forester

Listing of Reservoir Sites
The TAC has completed compiling a list of the potential reservoir sites on the Bear River. Included is an index to show the present cost in 2007 dollars for each project.

Operations Committee – Sam Lowham

2007 Bear Lake Storage and Bear River Lower Division – Connely Baldwin, PacifiCorp
The dramatic shift to earlier runoff resulted in reduced natural flows for downstream water users. It also changes the value of storage water in Bear Lake. This resulted in earlier and longer demands on storage water in Bear Lake. The biweekly conference calls between users continued throughout the season and there was constant emphasis on conservation. As a result, 33,800 acre feet were conserved and left in Bear Lake.

2007 Summary
High 5912.58 on May 18, 2007
Low (probably) 5707.63 on Nov. 11, 2007
Current elevation is 5907.65
Settlement Agreement Allocation was 218.000 AF (89% of normal)
33,800 AF was saved for lake recovery (15% of the allocation)
Outlet Canal released from May 12 to Sept. 24
The early runoff came in mid March – 6-8 weeks early

Estimates for 2008
If the lake rises 0.4 ft. (like 1977 – the worst year) the lake would be at 5908 ft.
If the lake rises 6.6 ft. like in 2006, the lake could end up around 5914 ft.

PacifiCorp and the Bear River Water Users are applying for Bureau of Reclamation grants to automate the diversions in the Central Division and record the levels of Mud Lake and Bear Lake at Lifton.

Upper and Central Divisions
- There was no regulation in the Upper Division although the river flows were clearly low enough to be in regulation. The water masters self-regulated and the resulting distribution was very close to what regulation would have imposed.
- The central division was in regulation from the first week in June until the end of the irrigation season. The call could have come as early as May 1st.
- Investigation into the flows revealed that there is no clear trend in the calculated reach gain/loss for the section from Border to Bear Lake. It seems to change depending on flows.

Compact Provision for Additional Depletion – Don Barnett
Several compact provisions were discussed relative to how they relate to growth and development, mitigation plans that transfer water across division boundaries and (storage) proposals that may interfere with existing water rights under the Compact. The TAC will investigate this and update the Commission on depletion allowance allowed under the Amended Compact.

The three projects below are examples of possible Commission involvement/intervention as future development(s) acquire water rights.

Twin Lakes Canal Project – Connely Baldwin
PacifiCorp filed a motion with FERC to Dismiss Application and Cancel Preliminary Permit on the Bear River Narrows Project proposed by Twin Lakes Canal Co. citing conflicts with existing PacifiCorp projects and also with the Settlement Agreement resulting the recent PacifiCorp relicensing. PacifiCorp is not in communication with Twin Lakes Canal Co. regarding these issues.

IDWR has received an application from Twin Lakes to appropriate water from the Bear and an application to transfer water from Mink Creek. These applications have not been advertised (i.e. not been announced in newspapers for public comment). Twin Lakes has asked IDWR to hold the applications pending FERC progress.

Black Bear Mountain – Liz Cresto/Jack Barnett
The TAC toured the proposed Bear Mountain Resort and also visited the Pegram area, the source of the mitigation water.

The water application, filed Oct. 12th by Black Bear Mountain Resort was returned to them on Nov. with their filing fees. It had some discrepancies, unclear water rights and was not detailed enough for IDWR to act on the application. There was also concern that the “simplified method” of the Bear River Ground Water Management Plan was not allowed when transferring water from one division to another and that there was not enough detail to insure that the mitigated water got to Bear Lake.

Hook Canyon Pump Storage – Dennis Strong
The Hook Canyon Pump Storage Project proposes to pump water from Bear Lake up into Hook Canyon during times of low electrical demand and then release the water for power generation when there is peak demand. The facilities will be underground and the inlet/outlet structure will be 120 ft. below the lake surface. The project will make the lake level fluctuate 2.6 to 3.1 inches per day. There are possible water rights issues, environmental issues and implications to the Commission with the constantly changing lake level.

General Commission Meeting

Gary Spackman attended for David Tuthill. The new Commissioner from Idaho is Marc Gibbs. Chairman Dee Hansen was not in attendance due to an illness. Rod Wallentine was acting Chairman.

Bear Lake Storage and Use – PacifiCorp Connely Baldwin
(See Operations Committee)

Bear River Water Users Association – Carly Burton

There are several interesting observations about the 2007 irrigation season. During the last 8 years, over 1.5 million AF of water were allocated under the Bear Lake Settlement Agreement. Of that amount, 1.2 million were delivered, preserving 360,000 AF in Bear Lake. The net runoff in 2005 and 2006 were about average (389K and 245K respectively). They now look like really good water years. The net runoff in 2007 was only 80,000 AF and that came in early March so very little natural flow was available in the lower division during the remainder of the year. 2005 and 2006 also had big rain events at critical times during the irrigation season. The 2007 irrigation season was the driest (only 53%) but had average temperatures (actually considerably cooler than in 2000, 2001 and 2003). In spite of all that, BRWUA still managed to save 33,800 AF in Bear Lake.

BRWUA is continuing to work with PacifiCorp and the Bureau of Reclamation to secure funds for the completion of real time monitoring in the Lower Division – including Gentile Valley Canal and the Dingle area diversions.

Water Banking
There has been a request by two Commissioners to learn more about water banking and rental pools. The Idaho water banking is controlled by the Water Board and allows for use of both natural flow and storage water in the supply bank. Utah doesn’t really have laws or administrative rules in place for either banking or rental pools.

Water Quality Report – Walt Baker (see Water Quality Committee)

State Reports
Utah – Dennis Strong
Utah has hired a consultant for the geotechnical study of the Washakie Dam site. There will be a public meeting in Portage to explain what is going on.
Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is selling water to developers who are not using it. As a result, WBWCD is expressing interest in moving up the timeline for the Bear River Development Project.

The Procter & Gamble plant proposed near Tremonton needs 6-7 cfs for their processes but will have considerable return flows. The plant will employ 1000. Agriculture land in the area is now selling for $15,000-$20,000 per acre. Over 700 acres of Ag. land are being taken out of production for the plant. P&G has filed an application from Bear River water and is buying shares in the Bear River Canal Co.

Idaho – Gary Spackman
The IDWR office in Soda Springs will be kept open to assist in the future real time monitoring projects and in the coming adjudication process.

Wyoming – Pat Tyrrell
Wyoming is installing additional real time monitoring equipment in other basins in the state.
Wyoming is currently in two lawsuits about water. One is dealing with the state’s ability to regulate ground water using a conjunctive management approach. The other deals with the water produced in the coal bed methane mining.

Next Commission Meeting
Tues. April 22, 2008