Bear Lake Preservation Advisory Committee
Thur. March 6th, 2003
Meeting held at Butch Cassidy's in Montpelier, ID.

The Bear Lake Preservation Advisory Committee meeting was attended by representatives from PacifiCorp, the Irrigators, Love Bear Lake, Bear Lake Watch, and members from both the Bear Lake Regional Commission and the Bear River Commission. Since 1995, this group has met to cooperatively work out problems concerning Bear Lake. While there have occasionally been some disagreements or even heated exchanges, the group is still resolving our differences peacefully. A similar group on the Snake River dissolved with several court cases pending and no end in sight!

Lake level Currently at 5908.12 ft.
If the runoff is similar to last year, the projected high level will be 5908.5 ft.!
To put last years dismal runoff figures in perspective:
A normal years runoff is about 285,000 acre ft.
Actual runoff for 2000 was 46,000 acre ft. or 16% of normal.
Actual runoff for 2001 was 16,000 acre ft. or 5.6% of normal!
Actual runoff for 2002 was 8,000 acre ft. or 2.8 % of normal!!

The allocation (reduced thru the Bear Lake Settlement Agreement) for irrigation this summer is 192,000 acre ft. A normal allocation is 230,000 acre ft.
The projected low lake level this Fall at 5903.5 (the lowest since 1936!).
One other interesting statistic is evaporation. During a normal year 125,000 acre ft. of water evaporate. Last year during the hot, dry and windy summer 141,00 acre ft. evaporated! That’s two feet of water!

Snow Pack The snow pack and moisture forecasts to date show 80 to 90 % of normal. While that is encouraging, the year can be boom or bust depending on the March and April snow and then how wet the Spring is. We’ll have a slightly better picture at the April 15th Bear River Commission meeting but we’ve been fooled several times in the past. (Like in 2000, 2001 and 2002 when the projected runoffs were 70%, 20% and 38% respectively)

Dredging The settling ponds have been completed just East of the Lifton Station. Dredging is scheduled to begin April 1st. PacifiCorps estimate of work duration is 4 to 6 weeks.
The mitigated items required of PacifiCorp by the US Army Corp of Engineers have mostly been completed. The entrance at the Utah Marina has been deepened. The boat ramp at North Point has been widened and lengthened. Money for weed eradication has been given to the Bear Lake Regional Commission ($1000 per year for each year the lake is below 5908’) (The Bear Lake Regional Commission is actually responsible for the actual weed program.) The two forks of St. Charles Creek (where they run across the exposed flats) have been channeled and pools made to assist the spawning Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout. (This is an ongoing project)

Water Quality There will be a Bear River / Bear Lake water quality symposium sometime this Fall – probably the first week in September. It will include a presentation by Cirrus who was commissioned by the Bear River Commission to do a water quality study of the Bear River.

Proposed Amendment to the Bear Lake Settlement Agreement The Bear Lake Settlement Agreement, entered into by PacifiCorp, several Canal Companies, Bear Lake Watch, Jim Kimball, Emerald Beach and Bear Lake East in 1995, was thrown together rather hastily. Several factors are no longer applicable and a couple a big issues have surfaced necessitating its revision. The major problem is where do you measure the allocation of water – at the Lifton Pumping Station or at the canals companies headgate! The amended settlement agreement addresses who absorbs the delivery losses (the irrigation companies) and who absorbs the inadvertent losses (PacifiCorp). The lake itself will lose about 7500 acre ft. or about 1 inch per year in the compromise. Still preserved are the irrigation allocation schedule based on a function of lake level (the lower the lake level, the lower the allocation), the improved lake recovery schedule and the cessation of pumping for irrigation at 5904’. Without the amendment things might return to full allocation schedules, delayed lake recovery and pumping down to 5902’.