Southern Utah dam to be replaced

U.S. Forest Service officials say Boulder Mountain's McGath dam, which holds a 25-acre reservoir, is rapidly deteriorating and needs to be replaced.

Utah dam safety engineer Dave Marble said the earthen dam, 15 miles north of Escalante, would wash away some forest if it fails.

The risk to visitors is low, except "somebody in the wrong place at the wrong time," Marble said earlier this month.

The Dixie National Forest said Aug. 10 it is making plans to replace the 115-foot dam, which was built in 1895, starting next summer. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources will help raise money for the replacement.

The dam holds back McGath reservoir, 9,600 feet up on Boulder Mountain, a body of water used for irrigation and stocked with brook trout.

Forest engineer Joe Black inspected the dam in 2005 and found it rapidly deteriorating and a potential threat to public safety and the downstream forest, said Scott Clemans, a spokesman for Dixie National Forest.

It was unclear if Black filed a report on the dam's condition, and he didn't immediately return a message from The Associated Press.

Marble said he made his own inspection in May and classified the dam a "low hazard" — a rating reflecting the dam's remote location and consequence of failure rather than its condition.

State records say McGath reservoir can hold 30 acre-feet of water, up to six feet deep. An acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land at a depth of one foot.