Forget the links. Here are the storys I could find starting with May of last year. If you only want the latest story, slide down to the bottom. There are three stories here, and more on teh Herald site if you just search for dredge and Utah Lake. I highlighted the titles in red for easier location of each story. Sounds like the fish are the reason it has taken so long to get this done.
[#ff0000][size 1]Date[/size][/#ff0000] [#ff0000][size 1]May 23, 2003[/size][/#ff0000] [#ff0000][size 1][/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 1]Dredging Utah Lake in time for
Ironman [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 1]By CALEB WARNOCK [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 1]The Daily Herald [/size][/#ff0000]
[size 1]PROVO -- As late as Wednesday, the Utah Lake State Park boat harbor had only 2.5 feet of water in some places -- so little that the swimming portion of the Half [red]
Ironman[/red] Triathlon competition would have been rendered all but impossible. [/size]
[size 1][red]
Ironman[/red] participants will swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and run 13.1 miles in the competition, which starts May 31. During Provo's first [red]
Ironman[/red] event last year, a sudden storm resulted in the drowning death of a 55-year-old California man. [/size]
[size 1]Thanks to some behind-the-scenes political maneuvering, the harbor will be dredged in time for the competition. [/size]
[size 1]After weeks of delays, county commissioners were so worried the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources would not get the dredging done in time for the competition that they put in a call to the office of Gov. Mike Leavitt for help, said Bob Foote, director of Utah Lake State Park. [/size]
[size 1]And while the contest may have pressured the state to speed up dredging, the real reason for removing thousands of tons of mud from the harbor is to ensure boater access to the lake this summer, Foote said. [/size]
[size 1]By Wednesday afternoon, the equipment arrived; Thursday morning the first buckets of muck were removed from the channel. [/size]
[size 1]Lowering a 40- to 50-foot channel from the east to the west end of the harbor is expected to take a week -- ending just in time for the [red]
Ironman[/red]. [/size]
[size 1]Utah County Commissioner Gary Herbert, who acts as a liaison for the [red]
Ironman[/red], said he would not confirm or deny asking the Governor's Office to speed the dredging, which had been stalled in part by trying to get the necessary permits to dig in the habitat of the endangered June sucker. [/size]
[size 1]The dredging should extend the boat season until August, Foote said. "We would like to see it go to Labor Day, but we'll see what happens. " [/size]
[size 1]With 7 to 8 feet of depth remaining in the middle of the lake "boating is not as bad as most people think, " he said. "This dredging project will really help. We are just hoping that we can allow people to go out and enjoy the summer because it is going to be long and hot. " [/size]
[size 1]Foote noted that the hundreds and even thousands of tons of mud removed from the harbor would be left on the north breakwater to dry for the summer; it will then be removed this fall. [/size]
[size 1]"It will be taken away somewhere, " he said. "We don't know where. "[/size]
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In Our View: Lake restoration will pay off
[/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 1][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 1]Date[/size][/#ff0000] [#ff0000][size 1]November 27, 2003[/size][/#ff0000] [size 1][/size]
[size 1]There is no question that Utah Lake is in trouble. All you need to do is look at it to know it's not a healthy ecosystem. [/size]
[size 1]The lake retains high levels of phosphorus and pollutants from sewer systems dumping into it over the years. Its native fish population, including the endangered June sucker, has been overrun by the common carp. The carp destroy vegetation on the lake's bottom and keep the silt stirred up, reducing habitat for the June sucker and contributing to the lake's algae blooms and muddy appearance. [/size]
[size 1]While shallow Utah Lake was never a pristine Alpine lake, it was once a greater natural resource than it is today. Its fish kept Utahns from starving to death during famines in the 1850s and stocked many a dinner table up through the 1950s. [/size]
[size 1]One dedicated group composed of private and government interests is hoping to bring the lake back to a more healthy condition within our lifetimes. [/size]
[size 1]The June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program -- a partnership consisting of federal wildlife officials, the state Department of Natural Resources, water users groups and recreational lake users -- is working to make Utah Lake a healthy place for fish and plant life. [/size]
[size 1]While the group's name suggests its aim is merely to save a lowly fish that anglers consider "trash," it is much more than that. To preserve the June sucker, which is only found in Utah Lake and the Provo River, Utah Lake has to be transformed to a more healthy ecolological environment on a large scale. A cleaned-up lake will not only be conducive to the June sucker, but also to Bonneville Cutthroat trout that Fathers Dominguez and Escalante observed there in 1776. [/size]
[size 1]The group is in the process of drafting plans to reduce the lake's carp population, which has destroyed much of the plant life that baby June suckers once relied upon for protection from predators. It is also looking at steps to restore marine plants near the shore to see if this will help the suckers and other native fish thrive. [/size]
[size 1]Other steps involve water flows and volumes -- rechanneling the Provo River to flow more naturally to the lake, and increasing water flows in the Provo River and Hobble Creek to restore them as fish spawning areas. [/size]
[size 1]The prospect of lake restoration has already proved to be an emotional issue for many. People have blamed the June sucker and the recovery effort for delaying repairs to a bridge on Geneva Road and holding up the dredging of Provo's boat harbor in time for the [red]
Ironman[/red] half-triathlon. Some say the latter delay cost Utah County its role as host for the annual race. [/size]
[size 1]But those are unfair charges to lay at the feet of the recovery effort. Department of Natural Resources officials said permission was given to dredge the harbor anytime except when the June suckers were migrating to the lake, which, according to Reed Harris, director of recovery programs, is exactly when state and local officials tried to do the job to accommodate the [red]
Ironman[/red] race. The Geneva Road bridge was delayed because an environmental assessment was not done beforehand. Had that paperwork been completed in a timely manner, the bridge work could have been done in a way that would not endanger the June sucker. [/size]
[size 1]Project members are sensitive to the concerns of water users and property owners, and have pledged to work with those groups to restore the lake. For example, they contemplate boosting flows on the river by purchasing water rights on the open market from willing sellers, so those who hold rights to the Provo River will not be losing any water. [/size]
[size 1]It's an approach that will head off some of the controversy surrounding efforts to maintain Coho salmon near Klamath, Ore. In that case, local farmers complained they lost their water to the fish. [/size]
[size 1]The Utah Lake project won't be completed in a couple years; right now, we're looking at 50-year timeline for completion. But the effort will be worth it if the lake can once again become a polished jewel among our natural resources, and we, as well as our children and grandchildren, can enjoy its restored beauty.[/size]
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[url "http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=12116&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0"]Dredging of Utah Lake resumes at Provo River[/url][/size][/#ff0000]
[size 1][#ff0000]Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 12:00 AM
THE DAILY HERALD[/#ff0000] [/size][url "http://www.harktheherald.com/print.php?sid=12116"][size 1]
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[/size][/url]
[size 1]Caleb Warnock[/size]
[size 1]After nearly a year of delays, crews have begun dredging the boat harbor at Utah Lake State Park.[/size]
[size 1]The dredging will remove silt blown by the wind from the mouth of the Provo River and built up over time in the harbor channel, said Utah Lake State Park manager Ty Hunter.It will also allow access from the harbor to the lake in low-water situations indicative of the past few years of drought.[/size]
[size 1]"Right now we are doing what we kind of refer to as an emergency channel dredging," he said. "The Provo River comes out (into Utah Lake) just south of the south jetty, and the prevailing wind blows silt into the harbor. We've got silt built up in that area."[/size]
[size 1]A 100-ton crane stationed on land at the harbor's edge will remove at least three feet of silt from a 2,000-foot-long, 80-foot-wide channel to make it easier for boats to get in and out, he said. The project will cost about $200,000; work is being done now because water levels are naturally lower in the winter and boat traffic is at a minimum.[/size]
[size 1]Dredging has also been timed to avoid the spawning season of the endangered June sucker. Work in the harbor had begun last May in order to accommodate the Half Ironman Triathlon competition, which was scheduled to conduct a swimming event in the channel. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted the work, saying it would disturb the June sucker during their spawning. Because there was only 2.5 feet of water in the harbor channel, the Ironman swimming event was forced to move into the open lake, where it was later canceled because of dangerous water conditions.[/size]
[size 1]Shawn Zinszer of the Army Corps said a permit to allow dredging last year had been granted, but the fine print of the agreement forbade the dredging during the spawning of the June sucker. As part of the settlement for those violations, Utah State Parks and Recreation paid $15,000 in fees toward wetlands rehabilitation around the lake and installation of an interpretive kiosk about the June sucker in the Utah Lake State Park visitor center.[/size]
[size 1]On Tuesday, Zinszer said the state's permit had been reinstated.[/size]
[size 1]As before, the permit will not allow dredging during the June sucker's spawning season, but because the harbor dredging should be completed by March, Zinszer said he didn't expect any potential violations.[/size]
[size 1]Hunter said more dredging will be done in the fall as part of work to realign the harbor's south jetty. The realignment will better protect the harbor from being filled in by silt from the Provo River.[/size]
[size 1]Hundreds if not thousands of tons of mud will be removed, he said. The mud is being hauled by dump truck to a nearby location where it will dry over several months. Part of the mud will then be used for landscaping at the park; the rest may be sold to the public.[/size]
[size 1]"It would be pretty good top soil, but as of right now we don't know if it will be sold to the public," he said.[/size]
[size 1]Visitors to the park can watch the dredging but are encouraged to keep their distance for safety reasons, he said.[/size]
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