Bear River Commission Meeting
April 16-17 2007 in Salt Lake City
Most of the detailed discussions occur in the individual committee meetings.
The results are then summarized by the committee chairs and reported
back in the General Commission meeting.
Water Quality Committee
State Reports / State Legislative Action
Utah – Walt Baker
- Utah DEQ has established a fund for non-point source grants.
- The Utah Lake Commission was established and may lead to a Great Salt
Lake Commission or Great Salt Lake Watershed Council.
- Utah is beginning a re-evaluation of its water quality standards.
- 6 streams/reservoirs will be listing for Mercury (Hg).
- The Lower Bear TMDL will be revisited. The Upper Bear TMDL was submitted
and approved by EPA.
Idaho – Barry Burnell
- The Idaho legislature authorized minimum stream flows for the Big
and Little Wood Rivers. The effort was driven by local landowners.
- $4 Million has been authorized for control of Eurasian Milfoil –
an aquatic invasive that is choking lakes in northern Idaho. The Milfoil
Task Force will be scoping state waters to assess the magnitude of the
problem.
- Idaho is actively looking for Mercury contamination in fish and birds.
50 lakes will be samples this year and 50 rivers next year.
- Idaho is holding a Water Summit to develop a Comprehensive Water Management
Plan. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the state could conjunctively
manage ground and surface water.
- Parts of the Bear River TMDL have been approved
Wyoming – Jack Smith
- Wyoming’s Tri Annual Review is at the Governor’s office
for signature. Potential problems are a push to tie water quantity with
water quality and discharges of water from methane coal facilities.
- Wyoming is now using the e-coil standard instead of the fecal coliform
standard, but this has not received EPA approval..
- Wyoming farmers are not using 319 money for water quality. They are
using EQUIP and other Farm Bill money.
- Wyoming is receiving pressure from the EPA to modify their watershed
plans to more closely correlate to TMDLs. The state will start the TMDL
process on waters that weren’t covered by watershed plans.
EPA Grant Update – Jack Barnett
The EPA Targeted Watershed Grand has been on schedule for completion
in September 2007. Discussions with EPA lead to an extension of the
grant for an additional year to increase the probability of a water
pollution trade and enhance the Education & Outreach. The extension
will not involve additional funding.
There will be a mid summer Pollution Trading Workshop to involve potential
traders in the concepts developed by the EPA Grant. The invitation only
meeting will get point source and non-point sources of pollution (municipalities
and farmers) together to explore the possibilities of water quality
pollution trading.
There will be a Bear River Symposium September 5-7 in Logan at the Utah
State campus. It will combine the Utah NPS Conference with information
presented as part of the EPA Targeted Watershed Grant as well as other
topics. There will be bus tours arranged by Utah Dept of Ag. on Wed.
the 5th. The Request for Papers can be found at www.bearriverinfo.org.
There are currently no funds allocated after Sept. 30, 2007 for continued
development or maintenance of the Watershed Information System (WIS).
Utah State proposed three options for the future of the WIS. 1. Maintain
and host the WIS at USU. 2. Arrange for another agency or organization
to maintain and host the WIS. 3. Pay a commercial internet service provider
to host the WIS. There are also three levels of future support to consider.
1. Consider the WIS as a finished product and maintain as a static website.
2. Maintain in its finished state but add new data as available. 3.
Fully extend the development of the WIS. The Water Quality Committee
will decide if or how to support the WIS before the next meeting.
Bear River Water Quality Task Force - Mitch Poulsen
- The funding under the current Information & Education grant expires
in September but another grant is in place to continue those efforts.
- Trout Unlimited presented the FLIR flyover of the Bear River at the
last BRWQTF meeting in Preston. The project, funded by TU and the ECC,
utilized dual cameras, one taking actual photos and the other taking
infrared images. The information is available on the WIS at www.bearriverinfo.org.
- The Task Force is still involved in the Tri State Monitoring effort
and the USU Mud Lake monitoring project.
Tri State Monitoring
To date, the three state monitoring effort has collected one e-coli
sample and two water quality sample at the 21 sites along the Bear River.
The third sample (Spring flow) is scheduled for next week. There were
no e-coli exceedances. The first year report will be available in November.
NAQWA is still in the low intensity phase. There is a possibility that
Utah will reenter the high intensity phase of monitoring.
USU Studies on Mud Lake
The Utah State University proposal for an intensive study of water quality
in Mud Lake was funded by USU’s Watershed Initiative and Idaho
DEQ. The study will install real time water quality sensors at four
locations within Mud Lake. 1. water entering Mud Lake from the Bear
River, 2. Water entering Bear Lake at the inlet structure, 3. Water
leaving Bear Lake at the Lifton pumping station and 4. Water leaving
Mud Lake at the Paris Dike outlet. This real time data would be verified
and supplemented by several manually taken water samples that would
include full chemical and biological parameters. The account is set
up for the funding. The equipment is ready to be ordered and the approval
from PacifiCorp is nearly complete.
USACOE Proposal
The Army Corps of Engineers proposal to make the Bear River a pilot
project will be turned down.
There is a Western States Watershed Council symposium in Salt Lake City
Nov- 10-12, 2007
Records & Public Involvement Committee –
Gordon Thornock
Elections
Charles Holmgren was elected the next Records & Public Involvement
Committee Chair
Future Public Events
The Bear River Symposium will be held Sept. 5-7, 2007 in Logan. It combines
the Utah NPS Conference and plans for the Education& Outreach portion
of the Targeted Watershed Grant (see Water Quality Committee).
There will be a pollution trading luncheon in Logan on July 19th to
introduce pollution trading to individuals and entities who are potential
traders (see Water Quality Committee).
Gaging
- USGS data is now “final data” within 4 months
- Utah USGS has incorporated the “estimating tool” for stream
reaches that are not gauged.
- The stream flow gage on the upper Cub River that is currently funded
by the Forest Service will lapse in two years.
- Under the new FERC license, PacifiCorp is not required to publish
their data from 16 gages to USGS. They will still send it to UT and
ID models for Bear River Commission use.
- PacifiCorp plans to automate most of their gaging sites and the reservoirs
and have that information posted with Stonefly.
Real Time Data – Roger Hansen USBR
Real time canal automation and monitoring has really expanded. The 12
canals below Woodruff Narrows Reservoir are monitored. The Covey Canal
in Cokeville is automated – it can be remotely actuated. Lincon
County, Wyoming has 21 sites monitored and 1 automated. Uinta Co., Wyoming
has 30 sites monitored with 1 controlled. Franklin Co., Idaho has 3
canals monitored via cell phone. The small pumpers in Cache Co and Box
Elder Co. are all monitored.
Much of the money has come from the Water 2025 program. The benefits
include more timely information, more rapid decision making and it builds
trust among users.
The real time stream flow information is currently hosted by Stonefly
at www.bearriverbasin.org. Other river basins that are automating are
Sevier, Duchesne and San Rafael. Roger suggested that the Bear River
basin team up with the other basins to host a web site that would serve
everyone and that would keep the cost down to about $6,000. After a
sidebar of the three states representatives, it was determined that
future site hosting and maintenance of the website will be paid for
by the Commission.
Operations Committee – Rod Wallentine
Elections
Sam Lowham was elected to be the next Operations Committee Chair
2007 Bear Lake Storage and Bear River Lower Division –
Connely Baldwin, PacifiCorp
The snow pack is much less than in 2006 or 2005 or even in 2004. All
of the lower elevation snow has melted. As of April 1st, the snow water
equivalent is the same as it was in 2004. Only 1977 was the only year
that was worse. The stream flows at Rainbow have been much higher all
winter - higher than in2004 and even higher that in 2006 until the mid
March. That has contributed to the rise the Bear Lake’s elevation.
2007 Allocation
The lake is now at 5912.22 ft. The peak elevation historically is in
mid June. This year the lake elevation will probably peak in mid May
– 3 to 4 weeks early.
The forecasts for the stream flows are also very low – in the
25% range. At lower forecast flows at the Rainbow inlet to Mud Lake,
there is usually a lower percentage of water stored in the lake. Conversely,
when the forecast flows at Rainbow are average (230,000 acre feet) about
80% gets stored in the lake.
Estimated Max Spring Elevation of Bear Lake is 5912.6 ft.
2007 Irrigation Allocation is 218,000 acre feet or 94.8% of normal.
Of that amount, the Bear River Water Users are allocated 201,000 AF
and the small pumpers from Idaho and Utah are allocated 17,000 AF. Transportation
losses reduce those amounts by the time the water reaches the head gates
or pumps.
Conservation and careful water management saved over 150,000 AF last
year. That water was left in Bear Lake. Coupled with the water saved
in 2005, the 2007 allocation nearly equals the water saved in the last
two years. Conservation and a lot of help from Mother Nature will be
key to making it through the year.
The earliest the outlet canal has been opened was on April 23, 1992.
The next earliest was 4/25/1977. This is different than the date when
pumping begins. It signifies the date when Bear River water flows through
Mud Lake for natural flow rights downstream instead of being stored
in the lake. This year may see a new record.
Upper and Central Divisions
- There was no regulation in either division during 2006.
- Woodruff Narrows Reservoir and Sulpher Creek are full and spilling.
- There probably will be regulation this year.
Twin Lakes Canal Project – Gary Spackman, IDWR
IDWR has received two water applications for the Bear River Narrows
Hydro Project proposed by Twin Lakes Canal Co. One is for a transfer
and one is for a new appropriation. The applications will be treated
the same as all other applications. Since Gary is the only hearing officer
at IDWR and the rest of IDWR was at the Idaho Water Summit, he asked
that the discussion not get too detailed as it might end up before him
in a protest. The March 2007 video on the project was shown after the
meeting ended for those who wanted to see it.
Bear Mountain Resort – Lance Anderson
The proposed Bear Mountain Resort is situated in the foothill between
St. Charles and Bloomington just northwest of Bear Lake. Their water
mitigation plan proposed to use Central Division water from the Nuffer
and Sorensen Ditches near Pegram as replacement for water from their
culinary wells. The TAC will look at the plan in light of depletion,
precedents set and the effect when the Central Division is in regulation.
Again, Gary Spackman stated that since he is the only hearing officer
at IDWR and the rest of IDWR was at the Idaho Water Summit, he asked
that the discussion not get too detailed as it might end up before him
in a protest.
Storage Pond on upper Thomas Fork
The permit for the small storage pond proposed on Giraffe Creek in
the upper Thomas Ford drainage has now been modified to account for
both storage and depletion under the Bear River Compact. Wyoming Fish
& Game is apparently aware of the proposal.
General Commission Meeting
Gary Spackman and Marcus Gibbs attended for David Tuthill and Dean
Mathews respectively.
Snow Pack – Ray Wilson
Bear Lake is currently at 38% of storage capacity. Last year at this
time it was at 25%. Looking at precipitation, in October the Bear River
was at 119% of normal. By January it was down to 39%. So far in April,
it is 42%.
The March snow pack in Utah was a negative .7 inches. Only 1992 recorded
a worse snow loss for March. At Tony Grove, the snow pack is at 20%.
Last year it was a record high. For the Bear River Basin, as of 4/16/07,
the snow pack is at 50%, down from 55% on April 1st. On the bright side,
that’s higher than any other basin in Utah.
The forecast is for 32% of normal for the April-July stream flows and
a moderate drought. In summary, the snow year and stream flow forecast
are much below normal.
Bear Lake Storage and Use – PacifiCorp, Connely Baldwin
(See Operations Committee)
Bear River Water Users Association – Carly Burton
BRWUA has continued to automate diversions in the lower division. Both
canals on Last Chance and West Cache went on-line this summer. Cub River
Canal will be finished this spring. Cub River Irrigation Co. has started
to put some of the canals into pipe.
The Utah and the Idaho Pumper groups were invited to the Bear River
Water Users Association meeting. There continues to be talks to merge.
Fortunately, the water saved and left in Bear Lake during 2006, over
160,000 AF, helps make this year’s allocation possible. Still,
all water users and administrating agencies must work closely in order
to survive this irrigating season. There may be difficulties meeting
the peak irrigation demands due the physical limitations at Lifton and
the projected low flows. BRWUA will work with PacifiCorp to address
these problems and minimize system losses.
Storage of Automated information
The Bear River Commission will pay Stonefly $6,000 annually to maintain
the real time data information. Each state’s dues will be increased
$5,000.
Next Commission Meeting
November 14, 2007
