Dec 9th, 2008
Utah Lake Master Plan on Track — Public Comment Period Underway
Efforts to restore Utah Lake to its former beauty and pristine state are well underway, with the preliminary draft of a Master Plan unveiled this past month by the Utah Lake Commission.
Utah Lake covers more than 150 square miles, is 14-feet deep at its greatest depth and when full contains more than 870,000 acre feet of water.
Utah Lake during winter
According to a 2005 lake-wide study (the most recent such study conducted), it was estimated that non-native common carp constituted 91 percent of all fish within Utah Lake, with a projection of more than 7.5 million two-year-old (or older) carp inhabiting the lake.
Unfortunately, as bottom feeders, carp are also one of the greatest contributors to most public complaints surrounding Utah Lake - its turbidity (or murky) coloration. Carp are not the only culprits of the often cloudy condition of the lake, however, as manmade contributors (agricultural and factory runoffs), algae blooms and high-winds can combine to stir up the shallow waters to create less than attractive waters.
As a shallow habitat Utah Lake can and does support a variety of warm water gamefish, including white bass, walleye, channel catfish and several panfish species, including crappie and perch (each of which have been introduced to the lake).
Nevertheless, the list of Federal and state agencies that have a say in the management of Utah Lake is almost overwhelming and includes the
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- National Parks Service
- Utah Reclamation Mitigation & Conservation Commission
- Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
- Utah Division of Water Resources
- Utah Division of Water Rights
- Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
- Utah Division of Parks & Recreation
- Utah Division of Water Quality
- Utah Division of State History
All told, six federal agencies, eight state divisions, and dozens of other local municipalities, governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, each have a hand in what happens to Utah Lake.
On top of these organizations, the Utah Lake Commission was
“formed to promote beneficial utilization of the natural resources of the lake . . . in keeping with the Public Trust Doctrine.”
As noted above, the preliminary draft of the commission’s Master Plan has been written and is now available for public comment and feedback. Reed S. Price is the Executive Director of the Utah Lake Commission and he can be reached by phone at 801-851-2900 or by email at rprice@utahlakecommission.org.
In addition, interested individuals are also invited to participate in the following online survey to provide public input to the commission.