Bear River Commission Meeting
April 18-19 2006 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
EPA Grant Update
The EPA Targeted Watershed grant awarded to the Bear River Commission
is now halfway through the life of the grant. The Watershed Information
System(WIS) at www.bearriverinfo.org is up and running. The water quality
modeling is concentrating on the Little Bear and the Cub River. It integrates
four existing models to evaluate whether pollution trading may be possible
on those streams. Even though there are comparatively good data and
relatively lots of it, there are never enough data to test and verify
the model. Data are rarely collected for episodic events like snow melt,
spring runoff or storm events. The Education and Outreach portion of
the grant will be hitting full stride within 6 months.
Bear River Water Quality Task Force
The Bear River Water Quality Task Force continues to meet quarterly
to coordinate water quality efforts in the three states of the Bear
River basin. The website at www.brwqtf.org is online and being populated
with data and minutes of past meetings. A detailed presentation of Mud
Lake’s operation as a wildlife refuge was presented to the Task
Force in January.
Basin Wide Water Quality Monitoring
Idaho’s draft proposal for basin wide water quality monitoring
received feedback from all three states. There will be a concerted effort
to iron out details and the division of costs in time for the upcoming
state budgets and hopefully will be implemented shortly. It will provide
monitoring at 19 sites, 4 times a year for 5 years and provide the data
for trend analysis.
State Reports
Wyoming report – The Upper Bear Watershed Plan has been approved
by the EPA. Implementation will begin shortly. The BLM has approved
the Smith’s Fork and Upper Thomas’ Fork grazing allotment
plan.
Utah report – There is some enforcement action being considered
on the Cub River. The snow melt may force the wastewater treatment plant
to be bypassed in the Logan/Garland area. Utah has $500K in USDA 319
money. $260K will be spent on the Cub R. There is $18K available for
projects on the Upper Bear. The Upper Bear TMDL received no public comments
and has been submitted to EPA. The middle Bear TMDL is being revised
to identify the “40% unknown”.
Idaho report – Idaho has 2 possible projects on the Bear with
319 money this year. The ECC awards $467K annually for projects on the
lower Bear dealing with habitat restoration, Bonneville Cutthroat Trout
and land and water acquisition. Franklin, Preston and Franklin County
are conducting a joint feasibility study for a regional waste water
treatment facility.
TAC (Technical Advisory Committee
Filling Reservoirs above Bear Lake
Woodruff Narrows Reservoir is within 3,700 AF of its target elevation
should Bear Lake not reach 5911 ft. Guestimates on when the lake would
reach 5911 ft. ranged from 5/6 to 5/11. The reservoir company proposed
letting Woodruff Narrows Reservoir fill and overflow thus preventing
the debris from clogging the outlets like happened in 2005. Continuing
the spirit of last year’s good faith, the excess water would then
be shepherded downstream to the lake. Although this is not in strict
compliance with the compact, there were no objections from downstream
water users or PacifiCorp.
Initial plans to draw down Sulphur Creek Reservoir in the fall so that
Wyoming Game & Fish could poison the illegally planted walleye fish
may be revised when it was discovered that 11,000 AF (instead of 4,000
AF) would have to be spilled to get down to a level where the rotenone
would be effective. The creek channel can only carry 90 cfs at bankfull
so that release would take about 60 days. Other options are being evaluated.
Amending the Delivery Schedule
Idaho and Utah have reviewed the water rights on the Bear and made minor
changes and corrections. PacifiCorp has also reviewed the changes and
sorted the rights as to natural flow rights, storage right or ID/UT
small pumper rights. The water right dates on the list were also standardized.
Storage Losses due to PacifiCorp’s Flood Control Release
Policy
In response to Idaho Representative Eulalie Langford’s request
to the Commission in the April 2005 meeting regarding storage sites
for flood control above Bear Lake, the TAC investigated PacifiCorp’s
present policy. In the 80+ years of the operation of Bear Lake as a
reservoir, there have been 30 flood control releases. Since 1999 (The
Three State Agreement), PacifiCorp has operated the lake with a target
pool elevation between 5916 and 5920 ft. Studies by PacifiCorp indicated
that there is no benefit to the lake (storage) during wet years and
only a 6 month benefit during the initial onset of a drought. The risk
of such an operation, due to the potential for lawsuits over negligent
operation of a reservoir and flooding, increases significantly. The
heaviest draw on storage water is in the first year of a drought.
Stream gauging
The gauge at Pixley is now real time with the flow data displayed on
www.bearriverbasin.org.
The Utah USGS is updating its finalized flow data and water quality
data 3 times a year now. Eventually it will be more frequently than
that.
Symposiums
Bear Lake Watch is looking at a possible symposium in the fall of 2007.
Potential dates are being evaluated. The broader topic will be the Bear
River basin with possible subjects including an update on storage sites,
water banking and the WIS.
Mud Lake
The TAC was given a presentation on the Bear Lake National Wildlife
Refuge (Mud Lake) by Manager Rob Bundy in February. The presentation
detailed the hydrology of the refuge and explained the operations of
the different units for optimum habitat control. The TAC (and PacifiCorp)
have a couple of follow up items to resolve.
• Are the areas managed by the refuge shown as wetlands or as
irrigated lands on the 1976 land use map utilized by the Commission.
• What are the water rights and shares owned by the refuge.
• Determine and refine the capacity curves for each units of the
refuge and for the refuge as a whole
The bottom line was that when PacifiCorp shouldn’t be storing
water (according to the Compact), neither should Mud Lake.
Potential Reservoir Sites
The Commission, through the TAC, is compiling a spreadsheet of potential
reservoir sites along the Bear River. Each state will add the data for
sites in their respective state.
Records & Public Involvement Committee
A professor from Columbia University in conjunction with Arizona State
Univ. is doing a study of interstate compacts. The Bear River Compact
will be included.
The Bear River Commission website is www.bearrivercommission.org.
Operations Committee
Capacity of Cutler Reservoir
The old capacity curve for Cutler had no date. It may have been the
original. A 1989 photogramy table showed considerable sedimentation.
The current data shows that at higher levels, the capacity is 2/3rds
less volume or about 15,000 AF less storage. At normal water levels,
the volume is about normal. This will not change the storage rights,
but may change the natural flow numbers so that water rights are distributed
more accurately. It may also change whether use is from natural flow
or storage.
2006 Bear Lake Storage and Bear River Lower Division
The Bear River basin snow pack and snow water equivalents are very high.
Tony Grove station is at a 25 year high. The numbers for Smith’s
Fork and Thomas Fork are similar to 1996 for the lower elevation sites
and similar to 1997 for the higher elevation sites. There should be
the same or better runoff than 2005. The forecast high elevation of
Bear Lake is 5914 ft. The allocation of 225,000 AF is divided as follows:
207,450 AF for BRWUA; 10,800 AF for Utah Small Pumpers; and 6,750 AF
for the Idaho Small Pumpers.
General Meeting
Dee Hansen - Federal Chair
Randy Budge for Dean Mathews (Idaho)
Hal Anderson for Karl Dreher (Idaho)
Snow Pack - NRCS
This is the first March 1st snow pack in the last 11 years that was
above average. The snow pack in 2004 was 80-90% below average. Soil
moisture is 71% saturated. In 2005 it was 75% and in 2004 it was 74%.
The stream flow forecasts are for 118-143% of average within the basin.
The Logan River is 143%. The drought is over!
PacifiCorp
The water supply forecast and irrigation allocation for 2006 was presented.
(See the Operations Committee)
The study of storage loss due to PacifiCorp’s flood control policy
was presented (See TAC Committee)
Bear River Water Users Association
BRWUA, PacifiCorp and Bear Lake Watch are working together to simplify
and clarify the mitigation process required under Idaho’s Ground
Water Management Plan.
The Bear Lake Preservation Advisory Committee met in Logan on April
12th. There is increased trust among the groups and increased awareness
about conservation.
Carly sees 2006 as very similar to 1997’s runoff and predicts
the lake elevation to reach 5915.7 ft. In 1997, the lake’s tributaries
contributed 120,000 AF. He estimates the demand on storage to be only
50,000 AF leaving 175,000 AF in the lake.
Mud Lake (See TAC Committee)
The Bear River Compact treats Bear Lake and Mud Lake as one hydrologic
unit. The Commission needs to know Mud Lake capacity because it impacts
the total lake elevation which can impact upstream storage (At 5911
ft., upstream storage can use their amended Compact rights and store
additional water). There is also a nomenclature problem because the
Compact and the Commission refer to Mud Lake. That area is now enclosed
in the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge which has several separate
units, one of which is Mud Lake.
Idaho’s website
Idaho’s website that shows web based mapping of the Bear River
hydrology, water rights, well drilling, flood hazards, and many other
features is online. See www.idwr.com. Go to Online Data and then to
Water Rights Accounting. It works best if you turn off pop up blockers,
don’t use the back arrow and use Internet Explorer as the browser.
Modeling Water Quality Trading (See the Water Quality Committee)
Water Quality Committee, Records & Public Involvement Committee
and Operations Committee (See individual committee reports)
Engineer Manager
In the last 10 years there has been tremendous cooperation and collaboration.
There is also much more trust. The Upper and Central Divisions have
become much more knowledgeable about when to ask for the Commissions
help and when to declare a water emergency.
The Wyoming and Idaho legislatures have each allocated $50,000 for a
study of potential flood control sites above Bear Lake.
State Reports
Idaho - Snow pack is above average in all watersheds. Adjudication is
moving to northern Idaho.
Utah – the Washakie site would utilize a canal from the Bear River
Canal Co to fill the future Washakie Reservoir which is off site storage.
Wyoming – Automation is proceeding as fast as possible
Next Bear River Commission Meeting is November 28
and 29, 2006
