Officials in Utah and Idaho have filed an application to control an unclaimed portion of water in Bear Lake, in what some see as a danger to the Great Salt Lake and a prelude to development on northern Utah’s Bear River.
If approved, the application filed with the Utah Division of Water Rights would give officials in the two states control of 400,000 acre-feet of water in Bear Lake — more than four times the amount of water at stake in Utah’s controversial Lake Powell pipeline proposal.
Utah and Idaho water managers hope to “store and appropriate water” in Bear Lake that in the past has been released from the lake for flood control purposes, according to the application.