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3 Years ago, the water level on Utah Lake was fine. 2 Years ago ... June 10th 2001 .. The water level was fine, June 30th 2001 it was down to where it is now. We are supposedly in a drought but the water levels in Jordanelle hardly move compared to Deer Creek & Utah Lake. And! They still pump the water out of Utah Lake during this shortage. What is the deal? Last summer I took a nice little drive down the Jordan river and it was Bank - to - Bank practically all summer! The Golf Courses were all still green but our lawns weren't. I am having a really hard time with this ... I think that the anglers / boaters of Deer Creek and Utah Lake need some answers. The Marinas have never been this shallow and they dredged the "pumphouse" area to 10 feet to suck Utah Lake dry. ... My question is why? Where is this water going?
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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 2] Makes you wonder what their Prioritys are Huh?[/size][/red][/font]
[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[unsure][/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Fisheries always seem to be last in line when it comes to water priorities. Most likely, more lawmakers farm and golf than fish.
Good Fishing, Kayote
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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 2] Kayote, I think you hit the nail on the head.[/size][/red][/font]
[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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[:/]
It's because of contractual agreements and ownership of water rights. Might as well get used to it. They OWN the water. If it is in a lake or reservoir or stream, you can fish in it. But the people or entities that own the water rights decide where it's going.
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When dealing with water levels, their is two things to consider.
Who owns the water rights?
What is the current snow pack or water table like?
Most of the water is owned by farmers and ranchers who need this water to irrigate crops. The DWR does own some water rights which are called conservation pools. Once the water is down to the conservation level all the water coming in is all that goes out.
Golf courses and most school lawns are watered by sewer water. Golf courses use a lot of water but consider how efficient they are.
What gets me is that every time I hear drought it's the people from Salt Lake that complain. Come down to Southern Utah and you'll see what it's really like to be in drought.
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Actually if you walk and drive along the Jordan River starting from Saratoga/Lehi, you will see that there are dwindling farmlands as the river goes straight down to Great Salt Lake. So if the farmlands are slowly disappearing as the cities gets built out up north of Utah Lake to Great Salt Lake, who gets those water rights anyways?
Might as well eliminate the farmland conspiracy... the real culprit would be those golf courses which is greener than greenbacks. And the idiots who wash their cars without a spray nozzle and let the water run down the driveway needlessly...
How about those people who drink eight glasses of water or more... no thats ok[  ]. How about those fishies that need water to swim...It's a total necessity.
Since Utah reaps millions from our fishing licences we should have our generous share of the water rights!
I wonder why the South goes dry... blame it on those golf courses in Mesquite... Your water drains south of you, ya know.
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All I have to say is if or when the water goes down to the conservation pools level how about packing out the garbage that you pack in. For example I did a lot of fish out to Steinaker last summer.When the water was taking out to the conservation pool level, people that were shore fishing had to move closer to the water which in turn ment that there empty big gulp, beer cans, gatorade bottles, powerbait, hook wrappers and countless other things were left behind.This pissed me off.[mad]Every time I went I would bring a smiths bag with me and take out a bag full and every time I went back there was more crap. Now where is all the stuff I didn't pick up.Under the water with the fish. I don't know about you guys but people that do this makes me mad.
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I agree with you Tincanfsh, I get frustrated by all the garbage left behind by our fellow anglers and others. Pack it in, pack it out. There were a couple times I did like you and packed out bags of garbage when I was really frutrated. Trouble is, it's a big hassle to pack out a bunch of other peoples trash so I rarely did it. I often walk by the mess and just grumble to myself and don't do anything about it. I came up with a new way to address the problem that I have been using for about the last ten years. I pick up one can or piece of garbage every time I'm in the field hunting or fishing. It's not a hassle so I do it every time. Some of my friends think I'm wierd for doing it, but a couple others have adopted this practice. It's not much, but if we all did it, just one can a trip, soon there would be no more trash. I feel better about not walking by it all, even if it is only a small contribution to my favorite haunts. Just my $.02.
Good Fishing, Kayote
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[cool]There will always be "slob sportsmen". It's good to care enough about the esthetics (and safety) of our recreational areas that we will remove the litter left behind by slobs. In California, I worked with some scouts and explorers who made one or two cleanup hikes into the Sierras every summer. We arranged with pack-in outfitters to drop off bundles of burlap bags at specified camp areas. Then the scouts would hike in and burn what was burnable and put the rest in the bags for the horses to carry out the next time they went out after dropping off extended stay campers. You would be amazed at how much junk...and the kind of junk...that is left behind by backpackers.
I have a philosophy. IF ALL THOSE WHO LITTER OUR FISHING SPOTS WERE LAID OUT END TO END...WE'D BE BETTER OFF. (sorry. an old attorney joke).
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Well in case any of you didnt know. The fact that you have wate like you do is because they stole all of the upper weber river water and now dumps into the provo. Imagine how the north looks for our favorite fisheries here? East canyon will probably not even fill this year. Pineview looks ok but im sure theyll drain it again for who knows why. Echo and rockport are consistant but are at least a mile low by the time august rolls around because our water is in the provo drainage now and all we truly have for water in rivers is beaver creek and lost creek.
So that would be my next question. Where is all that stinkin water going? Obviously not in the great salt lake you can almost walk to antelope"use to be a island" now. Anyone that can answer this one, i am all ears.
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GOLF COURSE WATER COMES FROM THE SEWER SYSTEM. Their is very little water pulled from the virgin river because of the humpback chub. So most of the virgin water ends up in Lake Mead.
FYI the Sevier River starts in Southern Utah. This river is unique because it flows the wrong direction South to North.
Northern Utah has enough water for everybody but people like to waste and abuse it.
The lakes down here have been at conservation levels for about 3 years, some more.
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[reply]GOLF COURSE WATER COMES FROM THE SEWER SYSTEM. [/reply]
Ewwwww... yellow water?[crazy][crazy]
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A couple of things to consider: Most of water that is wasted comes from all of us- you and I. Think about this: if people wouldn't water their lawns every day in the hours between oh....Noonish to 6:00 pm, I don't think our water situation would be as bad as it is. People need to be educated about lawn care and how evaporation works. Now I like a green lawn as much as the next person, but if we use our brains when we water, the benefits will start showing.
Also, I live in Northern Utah and you all should see the water levels of some of these places. Bear Lake gets lower every year and they say that farmers use the water for irrigation in both Northern Utah and Idaho. I realize that farming is important, but what happens is that Bear Lake may not ever be at the level it was, say 5 yrs. ago because of the low snow pack year in and year out. It's  that a lake that beautiful and took millions of years to form, is being ruined in just decades by man.
Anyway...just thought I'd pass those thoughts along.
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Hey XMAN , I work right out by the Great Salt Lake or should I say I use to . It keeps getting farther away every year . You just might be able to walk to the Antelope Island , might be a little soft in the mud , haven't tried it myself , but there is no water around it on the southeast corner . I wonder if the buffalo will be coming across it in the near future .
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I saw on the news the other night there is no Antelope Island right now. You could walk all the way across, the water is so low.
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Rapala your right on track here
Our University (Southern Utah University) has been doing water conservation pratices for 6 years now, as a Landscape Specialist with the University I manage a central irrigation system that waters off ET. I also have the opportunity to sit in and also give lectures about water conservation all across the state. I can honestly say that the public is one of the biggiest wasters of water because of landscape practices.
I do not advocate limiting water to people but I do advocate making them pay for it if their going to use more than what they actually need. The bottom line is education, if people don't know how to water properly how can we slam them? I honestly know that I could help almost everyone in here on how to conserve water on your landscapes, heck prove me wrong and come to our water conservation workshop that myself, our local extension agent, and water conservation specialist from Utah State University will put on the first on May.[sly]
This water conservation thing is real and it's not going away and it shouldn't go away, we just need to be prudent in our use and hope for a bountiful snow pack in our mountains to help fill our under-ground aquifers.
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I for one would like to hear about the conservation program you have. If you dont mind posting the schedule or something along those lines I would like to read it. I dont feel it would be harmful to learn more ways to conserver water.
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