BLUE LAKE INFORMATION UPDATE

[BigBassaholic]

I got this response back from the biologist here on Dugway: 8/25/2008

[size 2]Asked the HAFB (Hill Airforce Base) contact and below are his responses… I have nothing to add to what he presents - hope this helps -- [/size]
[size 2] [/size]
[size 2]Robbie[/size]
[size 2] [/size]
[size 2]--------------[/size]
[size 2]Blue Lake with it's parking lot (217 Acers) is owned by the Utah parks [/size][size 2]department. The AF deeded it over to them in 1972. The area is[/size]
[size 2]managed by Utah DWR central region office. The rest of the blue lake complex is Utah Test and Training range (15,000 Acers). [/size]
[size 2] [/size]
[size 2]The stream area is on AF lands there is no hunting or fishing. Check the two different proclamations. These are available on the DWR web site. Now with that said it is a remote area DWR does not patrol or enforce out that way. [/size]
[size 2] [/size]
[size 2]We have AF patrols that go that way monthly, I believe they will enforce especially hunting. Not that the AF is against hunting they do not want [/size][size 2]someone shooting at the F16's that fly over there all the time. Last [/size][size 2]time I was out there, the area was posted "by order of the commander"[/size]
[size 2]Wendover police will respond if called. I here all the time of people hunting and fishing and Each time I go out that way there is evidence left on the ground fishing line etc, empty bullet cases, all different [/size][size 2]calibers. There are ducks, bass, sunfish etc. I have not seen any one[/size]
[size 2]hunting or fishing. Bottom line is you hunt and fish at your risk. [/size][size 2]Remember this is a remote area and not a Utah hot spot. [/size]
[size 2] [/size]
[size 2]The various diving clubs around use the area to certify. The lake is about 70-80 feet deep with 75 plus springs bubbling up from the bottom.[/size]
[size 2]The water is extremely old, we had university of waterloo, Canada run [/size][size 2]isotope dating on the water. The Temperature ranges 68-72 degrees year[/size]
[size 2]round. [/size]
[size 2][/size]
[#ff0000][size 2]I hope this helps anyone out.....[/size][/#ff0000]
[signature]

[Majja]

Thanks for the info. I would be interested to know how old the water is. But than I am a geek like that.
[signature]

[onehun]

DITTO
[signature]

[lov2fish]

Thanks for the info man this really helps like someone else said no fish is worth getting killed over. Last time i was out there i didn't see any sings and saw all the foot prints out thre so i didn't think i was doing anything wrong.
Now about that water being very old [:/] how old is too old no more Tilapias for me.
[signature]

[RiverRat77]

Bummer... i'd always contemplated the duck hunting out that way. I may still give it a shot.... but if I disappear without a trace, you'll know where to look.... or not. [cool] Oddly enough, every time I've been out there... I've seen nobody even close to official. No Army vehicles, no DWR, nothing. I wonder if this isn't an "official" position they take but aren't real big on enforcing anything out there unless somebody really gets out of line.
[signature]

[GEEZER]

Another issue with walking down the stream from Blue Lake is that the area was a practice bombing range during WWII and has been used as such intermittently since. There is still some unexploded ordinance out there and some of it is so unstable that almost any disturbance & BOOM. There have been instances of spontaneous explosions, how recent I don't now.
[signature]

[riverdog]

I remember reading several years ago the the Bonneville Seabase warm springs was a remnant of an inland sea and the water was either 10,000s or 100,000's years old. I wonder if these other warm springs in the west desert such as Blue Lake and Horseshoe Springs aren't part of that same sysyem. I know there's a bit of salt in Blue Lake and all 3 of these places the water temps are pretty close to the same.
[signature]

[cat_man]

Isn't all water millions of years old? It just changes from steam to water to ice and back, etc.?
[signature]

[Majja]

Very good point. I wonder if they mean it in that it has not gone through the cycle. But than again that would be the same with the ocean as well.
[signature]

[onehun]

Some of it would have to evaporate and turn back into rain and aso on right.
[signature]

[riverdog]

By dating they mean that water has been trapped underground for 100,000 or whatever years since their was an inland sea in the area. Those systems aren't receiving an influx of rain and snowmelt continually to replenish them. No modern pollutants, traces of radioactive fallout etc that you find in water that has filtered in from the surface.
[signature]

[onehun]

So is it better or worse? If the water is that old would'nt it contain alot of sulfer?
[signature]