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APPENDIX D
Basin Resource Perspective
The Bear River takes a circuitous path from its headwaters in the Uinta Mountains to the
Great Salt Lake. The Bear passes through Evanston, Wyoming, crosses into Utah, returns into
Wyoming and flows through Cokeville. It then crosses into Idaho, reenters Utah and empties
into the Great Salt Lake in the Bear River Wildlife Refuge. The Bear River is unique in that
there has been very little Federal water agency presence in any development in the basin. In
the early 1900's, Utah Power and Light constructed a canal to connect the Bear River with
Bear Lake and installed the Lifton Pumping Plant in order to operate Bear Lake as a storage
facility for downstream irrigation and hydropower generation.
The two main Bear River storage facilities in Wyoming, Sulphur Creek Reservoir upstream
from Evanston, and Woodruff Narrows Reservoir between Evanston and Cokeville, were built
with state funds provided by Wyoming and Utah, respectively. These facilities provide water
for industrial agricultural and municipal uses. As in other basins, the Bear River area is
experiencing increasing demands for recreational water uses such as angling and boating.
Water quality issues have come to the forefront over the past few years. In 1993, a Bear River
Water Quality Conference was held in Logan, Utah to discuss issues such as the impact of Bear
River flowing into Bear Lake, grazing concerns related to stream sedimentation, and
hydropower operations. After that conference, the three states agreed to meet and develop a
basin-wide water quality plan.
Recent litigation has forced the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to
begin developing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) in compliance of the Federal Clean
Water Act. The DEQ is currently exploring the use of watershed management plans in lieu
of using TMDL's, but this enforcement has statewide implications.
Compact Allocations
Estimated Annual Depletions (1976-1990) of the Bear River Above Stewart Dam in
acre/ft.
State |
Allocation |
Agricultural Depletions |
Municipal & Industrial Depletions |
Total Depletions |
Remaining Allocation |
Wyoming |
13,000 |
1,996 |
781 |
2,777 |
10,223 |
Idaho |
2,000 |
1,293 |
0 |
1,293 |
707 |
Utah |
13,000 |
5,106 |
177 |
5,283 |
7,717 |
Source: Eight Biennial Bear River Commission Report, November 1995.
The original Bear River Compact was ratified by Congress in 1958
and allotted to Wyoming 17,750 acre-feet of storage. The total
storage capacity of completed projects is 13,183 acre-feet. The
remaining 4,567 acre-feet has been attributed to four proposed
projects. Under provisions of the Amended Compact of 1980, Wyoming
is able to transfer this remaining 4,567 acre-feet to existing
reservoirs to maximize compact storage when the basin is under
storage restrictions due to low levels of Bear Lake. The Amended
Compact prohibits upstream storage under amended compact
allocations when Bear Lake elevation is below 5911 feet.
The Amended Compact awarded to Wyoming an additional 35,000 acre-
feet of storage and 13,000 acre-feet of annual depletions. Four
storage projects to date have added a total of 14,054 acre-feet.
Wyoming reported to the Commission an estimate of the depletion
that had taken place from 1976 to 1990. Wyoming's depletion
estimate from all new post-1976 uses was 3,241 acre-feet, which is
well within the State's annual allocation of 13,000 acre-feet.
Future Concerns
After the completion of the 1980 Amended Compact, Wyoming made an
initial allocation of its 13,000 acre-feet of depletion. This was
done at the height of the energy boom in Wyoming and the requests
exceeded the state's allocation. The boom was short-lived, and
very little of the proposed development in the Evanston area
occurred. Demands for Wyoming's remaining allocations would
increase with an upturn in extractive energy development. During
dry years, however, current day priorities would receive very
little water. Additional storage and development of groundwater or
other sources will be necessary to provide the dependable supply
required for any energy-related production facility.
Since the federal government authorized the Cokeville Meadows
National Wildlife Refuge, land has been acquired for the Refuge in
the floodplain south of Cokeville. An agreement between the
Wyoming State Engineer's Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service states that transfer of water for changes in use on the
Refuge lands will be in compliance with state law.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has developed a management
plan for the Bonneville cutthroat trout in many of the tributaries
to the Bear River. Game and Fish is addressing concerns of
abundance and distribution of the fish throughout the basin in
order to stabilize the populations. Instream flow protections are
important for the maintenance of this sensitive species and to
avoid future listing under the Endangered Species Act.
Further downstream, Wyoming carefully monitors Utah's long-range
plans for Bear River use. Several dam sites have been analyzed
by Utah. These storage facilities would provide Bear River
water for supplemental municipal supply for the Wasatch front,
including Ogden and Salt Lake City. The Bear River Commission is
also extensively involved in developing an interstate delivery
system between Utah and Idaho for the basin below Bear Lake.
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