Bear Lake users facing dry times

GARDEN CITY, Rich County — The shores of Bear Lake are more expansive this summer as the drought takes its toll in this corner of northern Utah.

With its level among the lowest in a century, Bear Lake is getting smaller for a less obvious reason: to help farmers.

But irrigation water pumped from the lake into the Bear River may not be available for some farmers next year.

"If we have another bad water year . . . we will deliver as much water as we can," said Dave Eskelsen, spokesman for Utah Power.

Since 1927, Utah Power has used Bear River to fill the lake during spring runoff at a pump station at the lake's northern end on the Idaho side. It then pumps water from the lake back into the river in late spring and throughout the summer for irrigation to water shareholders in southern Idaho and northern Utah, including Cache and Box Elder counties.

First begun as a hydroelectric project in 1909 by Teluride Power Co., which later combined with others to form Utah Power in 1912, the Bear Lake project was interrupted by World War I. Utah Power still generates a minimal amount of electricity through stations on the river but concentrates more fully on the irrigation side of the project, Eskelsen said.

The water helps irrigate 150,000 acres, or 234 square miles, of farmland and raises $45 million in crops each year, he said.

"The bottom line is, for the purposes of the power company, we have the rights to store and divert water in Bear Lake to irrigators. We have to fulfill our obligations to the water users," said Eskelsen. "It allows the farmers to weather a serious drought."

"We're down almost 16 feet from capacity," said Tami Payne, ranger at Bear Lake State Park. At an elevation of 5,908 feet, the lake level has only been lower in 1992 at 5,905 and in 1936 when it reached 5,902. After the drought in 1992, Utah Power and several conservation groups agreed in a 1995 compact that Utah Power can drain the lake to 5,904. Even now, at 4 feet above that minimum, problems linked to the low lake are taking their toll on recreation.

Many boat launching points around the lake have closed because the water is too far from the roadways. Many rental outfitters have taken to towing boats to the lake with tractors on the ever growing shore, said Ashlee Phelps, manager of North Beach Rentals on the Idaho side.

"It's two football field lengths to the water and more in some places," said Phelps. "We've pulled a lot of people out of the sand this summer." Not only is there more beach, but the lake has even given way to its seldom seen clay shore, said Phelps. "I've never seen it this low."