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WILLARD, Utah (AP) -- Bureau of Reclamation officials hailed Willard Bay's role in mitigating drought effects talked about enlarging it.
You can see where the function of the reclamation projects served their purpose during the drought," Ed Vidmar, chief of operations of the Bureau of Reclamation in Provo, said during a tour of the site on Tuesday. "Now we're recovering from the drought. The dams served the purpose our forefathers intended."
The Bureau of Reclamation built the Watkins Dam, which is really 17.4 miles of dike that creates the Willard Bay recreation area.
Willard Bay holds nearly 200,000 acre feet of water. During the drought, water from Willard Bay was pumped to farms and homes in western Weber County, freeing up water from reservoirs in the mountains for other uses.
Vidmar said a study is now under way to look at enlarging the Watkins Dam to make it a foot higher.
The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District has a potential 10,000 acre feet of excess water it needs to store in the future, and Willard Bay could accommodate that, he said.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
