07-17-2016, 03:35 PM
[#0000FF]Good luck with your career goals. Hope you make it out the other end of the educational maze with all of your mental faculties intact. We need some clear heads reviewing status quo and planning for the future.
Ya know, one of the other things that occurred to me as I have been reflecting on our current UL problems, is that Jordanelle is probably largely to blame for much of the water woes of Utah Lake. I was around before Jordanelle...and I recall the basic water situation with Deer Creek and Utah Lake. Even in our worst water years Utah Lake never got as low as it does now...after Jordanelle.
Jordanelle was a boon from the standpoint that it helped hold additional water during high runoff years...when the excess would just flush on down to Salt Lake. Since then it has been used as a good regulatory lake...to help maintain levels for Deer Creek, etc. But in a poor runoff year...like our last 3 or 4...it has withheld water that could have kept Utah Lake much healthier. This last year is a prime example. Jordanelle was allowed to fill higher than it has for years...and Utah Lake was almost dewatered completely.
We can only hope that the result (toxic algae bloom) serves notice to the regulatory folks that Jordanelle is the "new kid on the block" and that maybe our grand old lady...Utah Lake...deserves more respect.
Jordanelle does not produce any electrical power. Nor is the water from Jordanelle used directly by any downstream water users. However, it is part of the State Parks system and produces revenue from recreational use. It can only be assumed that the recreational use of Utah Lake was willingly sacrificed for the good of Jordanelle. Otherwise, Jordanelle could have been mostly emptied...to help sustain Utah Lake...without any loss except to the power squadron and the water toy crowd.
At what point does recreation supercede ecology?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Ya know, one of the other things that occurred to me as I have been reflecting on our current UL problems, is that Jordanelle is probably largely to blame for much of the water woes of Utah Lake. I was around before Jordanelle...and I recall the basic water situation with Deer Creek and Utah Lake. Even in our worst water years Utah Lake never got as low as it does now...after Jordanelle.
Jordanelle was a boon from the standpoint that it helped hold additional water during high runoff years...when the excess would just flush on down to Salt Lake. Since then it has been used as a good regulatory lake...to help maintain levels for Deer Creek, etc. But in a poor runoff year...like our last 3 or 4...it has withheld water that could have kept Utah Lake much healthier. This last year is a prime example. Jordanelle was allowed to fill higher than it has for years...and Utah Lake was almost dewatered completely.
We can only hope that the result (toxic algae bloom) serves notice to the regulatory folks that Jordanelle is the "new kid on the block" and that maybe our grand old lady...Utah Lake...deserves more respect.
Jordanelle does not produce any electrical power. Nor is the water from Jordanelle used directly by any downstream water users. However, it is part of the State Parks system and produces revenue from recreational use. It can only be assumed that the recreational use of Utah Lake was willingly sacrificed for the good of Jordanelle. Otherwise, Jordanelle could have been mostly emptied...to help sustain Utah Lake...without any loss except to the power squadron and the water toy crowd.
At what point does recreation supercede ecology?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]