Utah Power's proposal to lengthen a channel into Bear Lake so it can drain more water for irrigators has drawn fire from lakeside property owners.
The Idaho Department of Lands has scheduled a March 17 hearing in Montpelier, Idaho, to address their concerns."There are a lot of misunderstandings about what we're going to do," said Craig Cox, Utah Power senior environmental analyst. "The more we can make people aware of what is going on, the easier they feel about it."
Nearly 200 comments opposing the project have been submitted to the Idaho Department of Lands, which has final say on the dredging-permit application because the proposed channel is on the Idaho side of the lake.
"There may have been a couple of letters for it, but almost all of them were against," said W.R. Pitman, manager of the Idaho Lake Protection Act.
"Most are concerned that giving a dredging permit to Utah Power will allow the company to draw the lake down even more, and they just don't like what they see out there right now," he said. "It does look disastrous."
Six consecutive years of drought lowered Bear Lake to 5,905 feet above sea level last fall, just 3 feet above its historic low point. At that elevation, Utah Power had difficulty meeting contractual obligations to supply water to downstream irrigators.
The proposal to extend the channel - which is now 3,000 feet long - another 2,000 feet would allow Utah Power to keep water flowing to its pump station on the lake's northern end, and from there to farmers in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
Utility water manager Carly Burton said Utah Power has no plans to go beneath the historic low point.
"People have visions of us draining the lake. That's not at all what we're going to do," Cox said. "But we have irrigation contracts we have to meet. If we don't, irrigators can see that it is done. We're trying to find the best way to do it with the least amount of environmental damage."
Warren Lee of Salt Lake City, who owns property in the Bear Lake area, said there is nothing in the law that would prevent Utah Power from declaring a water emergency and taking out more water.
He said his shoreline property and most marinas are now a quarter-mile from the water.
"More dredging will harm property owners, recreationists, the Bear Lake Valley economy and, above all, the environment by releasing sediments harmful to marine biology," Lee said.
He feels antiquated water laws from the 19th century are the root of the problem.