Emery County project offers something new for farmers, boaters


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GREEN RIVER, Emery County — Construction crews are wrapping up a big project in eastern Utah, a newly rebuilt irrigation dam on the Green River.

It's considered unique because it has new features that will benefit not only farmers, but boaters and fish as well.

Located just a few miles upstream from Green River in Emery County, the Green River diversion dam was built a century ago, mainly to divert water into farm fields. It flows into three major irrigation canals, the primary source of water for several thousand acres that would otherwise be bone-dry desert.

A historic water wheel adjacent to the diversion stands as a reminder that the dam has been crucial to Green River farmers for generations.

"Water in the West," said melon farmer Chris Dunham. "That's why they were able to stay here."

The diversion system came close to disaster though in 2011, when a flood nearly wiped out the structures.

"We had water leaking underneath the structure," Dunham said. "We were real close to a breach."

To anyone boating down the river since 2011, the damaged diversion structure was a potential nightmare.

"There was a lot of rebar and stuff sticking out, which made it a real hazard," said Brody Young, a boating specialist for Utah State Parks.

KSL-TV
KSL-TV

Gerber Construction replaced the flood-damaged structures by using piles of dirt to create cofferdams that protected work areas from the waters of the Green River. Over a six-month period, crews built concrete structures at each end and upgraded an overflow structure that stretches across the river and forms the center section of the project.

The rebuild cost $7.7 million, most of it from a federal emergency watershed fund administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. State agencies and water users provided the remainder of the money.

Young had praise for the cooperative spirit that guided the planning process.

"It's unique," he said, "when everyone came to the table and we were able to work a compromise where everyone got what they wanted."

A small, local power plant and area farmers now have an improved and more reliable water diversion system.

Gerber Construction
Gerber Construction

Fishermen and river runners have a brand-new passage downriver. They can just aim their boats between two large boulders above the dam and speed right through the diversion in a specially constructed boat channel.

The change means the Green River is now navigable for hundreds of miles — from Flaming Gorge all the way to Lake Powell.

The boat passage through the dam is not open to the public yet. It's undergoing testing to make sure it's safe at all water levels.

"All worked together toward a common goal," said river-running enthusiast Herm Hoops. "And I think everybody got pretty much what they wanted out of it."

"It was just a great collaboration of a lot of entities," Young said, "with resources to really make this happen."

There's even something for the fish — a new fish ladder. It's a run of water through the diversion that meanders around a series of concrete baffles.

Gerber Construction
Gerber Construction

"It allows fish to rest in the current, squirm around these concrete barriers, and move upstream," Young said, "as they would do naturally, say, if this dam wasn't here."

The fish ladder is designed especially to help endangered fish species that need to go upstream to spawn.

"You know, make babies," Young said, "so they can grow and live and come downstream and run the same process over and over again."

There will be an open house May 11 hosted by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, which were partners in the project.

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