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Show water levels can be beneficial to wildlife. Periodic flooding and drying events keep wetlands in early successional stages and increase their productivity. Flooding impacts begin at lake elevation of 4198 feet. Most lake- shore freshwater wetlands have been inundated with salt water when lake elevations exceed 4208 feet. Flooding Impacts on Investor- Owned Public Utilities Unless flooding is so severe as to enter established commercial and residential developments, damages to the telephone and gas utilities ( US West and Questar [ formerly Mountain Fuel], respectively) are minimal, even at lake elevations above 4208 feet. Much more vulnerable to flooding are Pacificorp's ( formerly Utah Power & Light) power lines. Much of the damage that occurred west of Bountiful and Centerville was caused by wind- blown ice which was able to reach the transmission lines due to high lake level. Utah Power & Light constructed a dike between the power lines and the open water to prevent ice damage to the power lines. The anticipated loss at 4210 feet is $ 1.3 million ( 1993 dollars), adversely affecting several high- voltage transmission lines between the SLCIA and Kaysville, two near Saltair, three more near Timpie Springs, a substation in Centerville and numerous service distribution lines. Damage costs would escalate to an expected level of $ 19.5 million ( 1993 dollars) if the lake level reached 4212 feet. The construction of the third commercial runway at SLCIA required relocation of several major power transmission lines closer to the lake, which could make the damage estimates greater. West Desert Pumping Project Although the name West Desert Pumping Project implies a pumping project, it is actually a project which operates by expanding the surface area available to evaporate the flow into GSL by approximately 26 percent. The increased evaporation slows lake level increases and accelerates lake level declines during periods of pump operation. The WDPP consists of a 10- mile access road along the former SPTC railroad causeway, a pumping station, two canals, trestles, dikes, a 37- mile natural gas pipeline and the West Pond in the desert west of the Newfoundland Mountains. ( See Figure 6.) The West Pond has a surface area of 320,000 acres, approximately 508 square miles, and a volume of 800,000 acre- feet at an elevation of 4216.5 feet. Three large pumps lift up to 3,000 cubic feet per second of water from the north arm of the lake to a 4.1- mile outlet canal. The canal begins at 4224 feet above sea level and discharges water into the West Pond. The project is designed to pump approximately two million acre- feet of water a year into the West Pond to evaporate up to 825,000 net acre- feet of water each year. A 24.4 mile dike with a maximum height of six feet retains the southwest portion of the evaporation pond and prevents water from the project from flooding I- 80 and the famous Bonneville Speedway A second dike 8.1 miles long with a maximum height of seven feet extends southeast from the southern tip of the Newfoundland Mountains and is used to contain the water and restrict the surface flooding of the U. S. Air Force ( USAF) military range. A weir in the dike is used 33 |
