Provo River Water Users' Facilities Tour

​The Council members enjoyed a beautiful day as representatives from Provo River Water Users Association guided them along several diversion structures and canals along the Provo River critical for conveying water for both culinary and irrigation purposes to downstream users. The group then headed up the Provo River onto the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest where the Forest Service hydrologist direct us towards popular recreating areas suffering from streambank erosion caused by flooding.  During the tour, Brigham Young University and iUtah representatives talked about their current water quality monitoring and research specific to this stretch of river. After lunch the group continued upstream to the Duchesne River West Portal and a wetland complex created in the Provo River floodplain close to Murdock Basin Road.

Jordanelle Dam & Hydroelectric Facility Tour October 2015

Jordanelle Dam and Reservoir, located on the Provo River about 6 miles north of Heber City. Construction of the dam began in June 1987 and was complete in April 1993. Filling of the reservoir was completed in 1996. The dam is 300 feet high with an active reservoir capacity of 314,000 acre-feet. It provides annual water supply of 15,000 acre-feet for irrigation and 92,400 acre-feet for municipal and industrial purposes.. The reservoir functions as a long term holdover reservoir to provide storage through a six year drought period.
The 12.6-MW Jordanelle Dam Hydroelectric Project, began operating in July 2008 and is an excellent example of a federal/non-federal arrangement to develop new hydropower.  In July 2005, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved construction of a hydroelectric generating facility at Jordanelle Dam, owned by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation.

Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant June 2015

The Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant is located on the east Orem Bench. It was the first direct filtration plant to be constructed in Utah. With an initial design capacity of 80 million gallons of finished potable water per day, the plant was constructed by the Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD) in 1979. It is currently undergoing an expansion to treat up to 120 MGD. The major components to the upgrade includes the addition to the existing flocculation structures, new ozone building, liquid oxygen storage (LOX), new mechanical dewatering building and chemical storage building.  There are also a number of smaller structures such as additional storage tanks, sludge thickeners and bypass vaults. We will also complete major upgrades to their electrical and controls systems and site work.

This plant serves Orem and Provo cities. It treats water conveyed from the Provo River and Deer Creek Reservoir for Orem City. It was designed to provide municipal and irrigation water to Provo City and northern Utah County communities.

The raw water source for the plant is in the Provo River at the Olmsted Diversion, which is about seven stream miles from Deer Creek Reservoir where water is also stored for treatment plants in Salt Lake City.

Olsen Neihart Tailings and Mayflower Tailings June 2014
Beginning in October 1940, the Mayflower became a mine that shipped high value ore. The portal to the mine is located on the west side of US40 south of the Mayflower interchange. Tailings impoundments for the Mayflower Mine included two areas, Olson Neihart Reservoir and Stichting Mayflower impoundment.

The Olson/Neihart Reservoir covered approximately 5 acres in Wasatch County, Utah. The tailings impoundment received lead-zinc-gold mill wastes from the Mayflower Mine until the early 1970’s.  About 200,000 cubic yards of mill tailings from the Mayflower Mountain Mine were placed in the reservoir. The reservoir was about 20 feet deep at the maximum depth and was used for irrigation water.

With the construction of the dam, the Olson-Neihart tailings needed to be moved because of their proximity to the varying shoreline.  The USBR and the US bureau of Mines developed design data for selecting a method of moving the tailing from the Olson/Neihart tailings to a new location without disrupting the chemical stability of the tailings and releasing metal contaminants into the environment.  The tailings were moved to their current location.

The Stichting Mayflower tailings have been covered with fill material and graded so that they drain. Conveyance facilities have been constructed to carry drainage from the tailings to the Mayflower Detention Pond.

Wallsburg Restoration October 2013

Alan Brown with the Wasatch Conservation District gave a presentation on the Wallsburg Restoration Projects to the Provo River Watershed Council. These projects were initiated because the Deer Creek TMDL showed that Main Creek contributes 17% of the Phosphorus loading into the reservoir. Wasatch Conservation District was awarded a grant by NRCS to complete a Coordinated Resource Management Plan (CRMP) for the Wallsburg area. The CRMP identifies and recommends Best Management Practices to restore Main Creek and tributaries.  Phase I includes restoring 4.1 river miles of Main Creek and is scheduled to be completed in 2015. The projected cost of Phase I is $630,000. Phases 2-4 will begin in 2016 and end in 2025. A total projected cost of restoration is $2.9 million. The Provo River Watershed Council has committed to $50,000 for Phase I work.