WILLARD — Despite a plentiful snowpack, water levels at Willard Bay might look closer to what you’d expect after a few years of drought. Employees at Club Rec, a business that rents out water sports equipment noticed the water dropping some weeks ago, but didn’t know why.
“It’s dropping about two feet every week,” Manager Tyler Redington said. “I was honestly just kind of worried about the boats that we have, and whether we’re going to send out jet skis, but we’re still doing it. We still have plenty of water.”
Hundreds of millions of gallons of water, being drained into Great Salt Lake off the north end of Willard Bay dike. (Mike Anderson, KSL TV)
Levels are expected to stop dropping once they reach about 50% of normal capacity, which Redington said will be enough to continue through the season — something he didn’t know before.
The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is lowering the levels to make way for a much needed repair. CEO and General Manager, Scott Paxman said two siphon pipes on the north end of the dike are corroding away. They were installed in the 1970’s.
“Those siphons help feed several of the users out there; Compass Minerals, as well as the bird refuge,” Paxman said. “They’ve been corroding from the inside and the outside. We’ve repaired them several times. The last time we repaired them was, I think, 2017.”
That last repair was supposed to buy the conservancy district about another five years of life. However, Paxman said increased contractor prices after COVID made it difficult to move forward, as bids came in at three times what they had budgeted for the job. Now that prices have come back down, he said they can move forward, but the repair now is more urgent.
“Either way, we had to get it done and we had a limited time to do it in as well,” Paxman explained. “We also couldn’t do construction during the winter months because of the freeze thaw issues with the backfill that we have to put back into the dike.”
Levels at the reservoir will be maintained at around 50% while the work moves forward, starting around Aug. 1 and is expected to take about six months to complete. The siphon pipes will be replaced by a direct outlet system that Paxman said should require less maintenance. He adds that there should be plenty of water remaining for recreation and to keep the boat ramps open.
