| OCR Text |
Show There are six water rights applications which have been approved for development, one of which is non- consumptive. These rights, all owned by mineral extractors, represent a possible diversion of 444,562 af7yr for mineral extraction. The earliest priority date of these rights is 1962; the latest is 1993. Like the perfected rights, the majority of the water diverted under these applications would be consumed by evaporation. There are 11 applications which have not been approved for development. Ten of these applications are owned by mineral extractors and one is owned by a quasi- governmental agency to provide cooling water for a proposed nuclear power plant. These applications represent a potential additional diversion of 657,565 affyr, the great majority of which is for mineral extraction. The earliest priority date is 1964; the latest is 1995. The State Engineer has on file three unapproved applications which do not divert water from the lake, but which would have a large impact on it. Both call for the diking of Farmington Bay and its use as a freshwater reservoir. Under existing approved rights, an additional 627,000 to 712,000 acre- feet of brine per year could be diverted from GSL and consumed by evaporation. However, unless this diverted water is evaporated in ponds constructed outside the lake area, thereby increasing the effective surface area of the lake, such additional diversions should have no measurable effect on average lake level. Although this quantity is approximately 25 percent of the total annual inflow to the lake from all sources, the primary limiting factor on greatly increased water diversions from the lake under existing rights and applications is the amount of new land available and suitable for evaporation ponds. The possibility that all the water approved under existing applications will be diverted and consumed at some time in the near future is unlikely. It is, however, likely that existing mineral extraction operations will seek to expand their evaporation ponds and brine diversions. Global and Regional Climatic Change The watershed of GSL responds to global and regional climatic variability ( annual precipitation, streamflow, temperature and other hydrologic processes). Understanding the relationship between lake hydrology and global climatic processes is important to understand changes in lake volume and salinity. ( SRC, unpub.) Many studies have focused on the relationship between lake volume, watershed processes and global climatic behavior. See Mann et al. ( 1995), Lall and Mann ( 1995), Moon and Lall ( 1996), Abarbanel et al. ( 1996), Lall et al. ( 1996) and Sangoyomi et al. ( 1996). ( SRC, unpub.) Flood Plain DFFSL's statutory mandate is to define the lake's flood plain and the legislative policy is to maintain the lake's flood plain as a hazard zone. DNR considers the flood plain to extend to the 4217 foot elevation. This is based on recent high lake level of roughly 4212 feet, plus three feet for wind tide and two feet for wave action. 21 |
