Utah Striking 'Fine Balance' As Flood Water Fills Reservoirs

Utah is striking a "fine balance" between letting its reservoirs fill and trying to lower the chances of flooding, according to a senior water official in the state.

As the temperature begins to warm, some of Utah's reservoirs will be attracting visitors. One such reservoir is the Pineview Reservoir in Ogden Canyon. The water levels at these reservoirs are now up 20 percent compared to levels seen two weeks ago, KSLTV reported.

This is due to the vast quantity of snowpack accumulated in the surrounding mountains over the winter period. At the end of March, when the state's winter storms ended, the snowpack was 192 percent of its normal level. The state is suffering from a drought, meaning the higher-than-usual levels were most welcome.

Water officials across the southwest need to be careful now, as warming temperatures are melting the snow very quickly.

The state has already seen minor to severe flooding across several areas. Lehi City, to the south of Salt Lake City, recently had to close spillway gates to the Dry Creek Reservoir, HeraldExtra reported.

Scott Paxman, general manager and CEO for Weber Basin Water Conservancy District told KSLTV: "There is a very fine balance. We fill them too soon, and there's the potential of either releasing more water than we want to and getting above the flood stage in the Ogden River and the Weber River."

The CEO said that the conservancy often gets questions as to why they do not keep reservoirs at 90 percent capacity.

Pineview Reservoir gets up to a million visitors during the warm summer months, and often, it will be filled to capacity. Many people undertake recreational activities like fishing and surfing there.

However, this year, the Weber and Ogden Rivers, which both feed into the state's reservoirs, are already seeing extremely high flows likely due to the snowpack melting.

"The fuller we get, the quicker it's going to potentially spill and then be uncontrolled, the uncontrolled releases we don't want," Paxman told KSLTV. "We get a lot of armchair quarterbacks who say, 'Start filling! Fill those reservoirs! Keep them at 90 percent!' Well, it's not that easy because the inflows get to be much more than the outflows can be."

Utah is home to some of the most important lakes in the southwest.

Lake Powell, which is formed by the Glen Canyon Dam, is one such reservoir that has been in trouble in recent years due to the drought. The lake's water levels are not what they once were. In February this year, the lake reached a historic low of 3,521.77 feet.

However its water levels have seen a sharp increase recently due to the high accumulation of snowpack. As of May 21, the lake's water levels stood at 3,546.54 feet.

Utah's Great Salt Lake has also seen some extremely low levels due to the ongoing drought. In fact, experts have warned that it could disappear in just ten years' time.

The snowpack has helped the lake's water levels recover following snow and rainfall resulting in an extremely wet period in recent months.

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