usgs.gov
A new report illustrates how groundwater pumping can affect the amount of water available in streams within the Malad-Lower Bear River Area in Utah. The product was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights.
standard.net
State scientists have weighed in on Summit’s controversial pump test, and appear to have some positive implications for the ski resort owners.
deseretnews.com
Public land managers weighing the environmental impacts of a controversial pipeline that would tap groundwater from the Snake Valley aquifer have extended the comment deadline by a month.
Those who want to weigh in on the draft environmental impact statement analyzing the Las Vegas pipeline plan now have until Oct. 11, rather than Sept. 9, to give input.
Pressure from critics opposed to the plan or by those who simply wanted more time to read the voluminous document led to the extension.
“We appreciate the BLM being responsive to the many requests they received from organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens,” said Rob Mrowka, spokesman for the Great Basin Water Network, one of the lead critics.
Among those who urged an extension were 22 members of the Utah Senate and 50 members of the House of Representatives after lobbying by the Great Basin network during last week’s special session of the Utah Legislature.
standard.net
Depending on public reaction to a recently completed water study, a water moratorium in Morgan County could end in as few as 30 days. The study revealed sources of nitrates in drinking water and could affect the administration of water rights in Morgan County.
In 2004, the state Division of Water Rights, the Utah Geological Survey and the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District teamed up to begin a groundwater study of Morgan County. Since 2008 and in conjunction with the study, officials enacted a moratorium on all water leasing in the area. That moratorium will be lifted after a 30-day public comment period.
Because the groups anticipated the study would be completed in 2010, Morgan residents were left waiting a year for the results. The county council chambers were packed to standing room only at a recent public meeting discussing the water study.
The study could affect how future water rights are administered in a county that has experienced much residential growth since 2007 and is expected to experience more once the housing market improves.
ksl.com
Water watchers worried about wells in Snake Valley — the focus of a controversial plan to pump water from an aquifer that straddles the Utah-Nevada border — can with just a few clicks track water level trends out in Utah’s Great Basin region.
The Utah Geological Survey is making its ground-water monitoring data available online for Snake Valley and adjacent areas as well as the water level in wells near landslides along the Wasatch Front.
Users can find wells and springs using a map interface, view graphs of the data and even download graphic data in several formats.
Critics fear taking the water will drawn down the aquifer, jeopardizing the needs of area water users, which include ranchers and farmers in Utah.
A press release by the survey said it has made the information available in part due to a groundswell of interest in a proposed water-development project in Snake Valley, which straddles the border of western Utah and eastern Nevada.
This Issue Contains:
GROUND-WATER QUALITY CLASSIFICATION FOR THE PRINCIPAL BASIN-FILL AQUIFER, SALT LAKE VALLEY, SALT LAKE COUNTY, UTAH
Janae Wallace and Mike Lowe
This CD contains a report (15 pages + 64-page appendices) and three plates (maps at 1:75,000 scale), all in PDF format, that address ground-water quality in Salt Lake Valley’s basin-fill aquifer and provide recommendations for water-resource management and land-use planning. The maps are described in detail in the report and show total-dissolved-solids concentration, ground-water quality classes, and potential contaminant sources.
CD (15 p. + 64 p. appendices, 3 pl.)
OFR-560……….$19.95
GROUND-WATER SENSITIVITY AND VULNERABILITY TO PESTICIDES, CURLEW VALLEY, BOX ELDER COUNTY, UTAH
Mike Lowe, Janae Wallace, Stefan Kirby, Rich Emerson, Anne Johnson, and Rich Riding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that states develop Pesticide Management Plans for four agricultural chemicals—alachlor, atrazine, metolachlor, and simazine—herbicides used in Utah in the production of corn and sorghum, and to control weeds and undesired vegetation (such as along right-of-ways or utility substations). This 27-page report and two accompanying plates are intended to be used as part of these Pesticide Management Plans to provide local, state, and federal government agencies and agricultural pesticide users with a base of information concerning sensitivity and vulnerability of agricultural pesticides in Curlew Valley, Box Elder County, Utah.
CD (27 p., 2 pl.)
RI-265………$19.95
A new interactive map of Snake Valley with all of the well data, has recently been added to the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) Web site. The West Desert Ground-Water Monitoring Network is almost complete and updates are available on a newly developed Google Earth™ interactive map. The network will monitor ground water for more than 50 years in Snake Valley, western Millard County and adjacent areas. The $3.5 million network is a response to planned ground-water development in east-central Nevada. The Utah Geological Survey will upload data onto its Web site.
Objectives included: assessing the potential impacts of pumping on ground water and spring flow in Utah; evaluating flow patterns in the aquifer from Snake Valley to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge; determining baseline water-level and chemical trends in local and regional ground-water flow systems; and, measuring the capacity of the aquifers to transmit and store ground water.
SNOWMELT-INDUCED GROUND-WATER FLUCTUATIONS IN SELECTED NORTHERN UTAH LANDSLIDES—PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE 2007–08 LANDSLIDE WATER YEAR
Francis X. Ashland
The relationship between ground-water levels and late winter/early spring snowmelt was evaluated at selected northern Utah landslides where ground-water observation wells had previously been installed. The period of investigation between September 2007 and August 2008 was characterized by generally wetter-than-normal conditions in the fall and early winter and subsequent drier-than-normal conditions. Snowfall in early winter resulted in a sustained snowpack that lasted through early 2008 at low elevation and into the spring at higher elevation. Ground-water levels predictably rose with melting snow, but the proportion of the rise attributable to melting of the winter snowpack varied. Peak ground-water levels consistently followed the onset of snowmelt, and locally occurred subsequent to local snowmelt around the vicinity of the observation well. At some locations, high ground-water levels were sustained for weeks or longer despite dry conditions in the spring and early summer.
print on demand (19 p.)
OFR-550……….$8.95
The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Several specialized programs comprise the UGS: Data Management, Energy & Minerals, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Information & Outreach, Geologic Mapping, Groundwater & Wetlands, and Paleontology.