Big Water Year For The Lake

By Dave and Claudia Cottle, Bear Lake Watch

There is no doubt that 2017 will be a big water year for Bear Lake - because it already is!

The lake came up a half of a foot in 6 days! It has been impressive to watch the water steadily move towards the uplands as it rapidly covers the flat gradient of the lake bed on the northwest shoreline. In many places along the west side it is already up into the weeds and will be at the toe of the steep up slope very soon.

It is also depressive to see the plume of brown sediment laden water encroach on the beautiful blue Bear Lake waters. Yes, the water will eventually clear as the suspended solids fall out of the water column, but to where... the bottom of the lake or the shoreline?

This year seems very different from 2011 in that the dark waters are hugging the west shoreline, with a sharp dividing line seen all the way to the Marina, where it is dispersed a bit, but the dark flow is still very apparent all along the Garden City area and clear to Gus's Point. (I need reports from the south and east side.)

In 2011, I recall the brown plume going more to the middle of the lake, then the lake was green until the first week of October. It is surmised that this was caused by the inundation of an estimated 19 square miles of lake bed that had been exposed for the previous 10 years - approximately half of that was covered with vegetation, with a predominance of large stands of invasive phragmites. There has been a lot of work done to eliminate that problem. Another difference is that this year the lake is filling much earlier, before the new growth has begun, so we will watch and see what the next few months presents.

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