By Bryce Nielson
It has always been interesting to me that few people understand how the water gets into Bear Lake.To explain this process accurately would take pages so I am going to describe it in, I hope, an understandable, simplified form.
Originally, Bear Lake was not attached to the Bear River and was never part of Lake Bonneville. The river ran past Montpelier to Soda Springs. Historically it ran into the Columbia River Basin along the course of the Portnef River. Then, thousands of years ago, lava doming at Soda Springs changed its course into the Great Basin, which at the time was filled with Lake Bonneville. Its water then contributed to raising Lake Bonneville to its highest elevation. The lake then broke out at Red Rock Pass and started its desiccation.
In the early 1900’s a plan was devised to divert the Bear River into Mud Lake with a canal, increase its elevation and let it flow into Bear Lake. The water would then be stored for downstream irrigation, power generation and flood control. In 1918 they built a pumping plant, Camp Lifton. It housed five huge pumps to lift stored water out of the Lake and put it into the Bear Lake canal that intersects the natural Bear River. The power lines that people see near Lifton are to run the pumps and no electricity is generated there.
As demands for the water in the Bear River increased an agreement was made between Wyoming, Utah and Idaho in the 1950’s called the Bear River Compact which described in “water law” how the River would be used in the future. Over the following 70 years, upstream reservoirs were built and water rights granted so all States would get their fair share of the water.
Try to visualize a gallon of water that comes from snow melt on the North Slope of the Uinta Mountains in Utah. It starts down one of many tributaries that combine into the upper Bear River as it flows into Wyoming past the first of countless irrigation diversions. It then goes around Sulfur Creek Reservoir outside of Evanston and through town. The first canal diversion that most people see on their way to Bear Lake is near Wyoming Downs. This canal sends water to Deseret Land and Livestock and fills Neoponsant Reservoir. The “right” to use that water which is considered “natural flow” along with many other rights was established in the 1800’s and have “seniority” over any downstream storage in Bear Lake. The water then goes into Woodruff Narrows Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming state line. The River now, in Utah, passes Woodruff Creek whose flow is stored upstream to the west in Woodruff and Birch Creek reservoirs. It then goes past Big, Little and Otter creeks which may contribute some water. The gallon of water then flows back into Wyoming near Cokeville. Two tributaries, Thomas Fork and Smith’s Fork now add water to the River from the hills to the east in Wyoming and Idaho. This is only possible since they have no reservoirs on them. Finally, back in Idaho, the water hits Stewart Dam near Dingle and is diverted into the Rainbow Canal, Mud Lake and into Bear Lake.
Once in the Lake it waits for its next journey. It may rise into the atmosphere as evaporation, it may be trapped in the profundal (deep) zone as stay for years or leave Bear Lake via the Bear Lake canal to continue its journey to the Great Salt Lake. An interesting trivia fact is that of all of the significant rivers in the world, the Bear River’s origin (Uintas) and end (Great Salt Lake) are the closest to one another. As the Bear River makes a large circle it provides water that makes our environment look the way it does today.
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