With Pineview Reservoir emptying, pipeline project expected to proceed next week

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The drawdown of water from Pineview Reservoir to enable installation of a new pipeline section on the lake bed is almost complete.
Installation of the new pipeline section is part of a broader $100 million project to replace 6.4 miles of aging pipeline from the reservoir to Ogden.
The pipeline hauls drinking water from around Pineview to the city.

OGDEN — With the water largely emptied from much of Pineview Reservoir, preliminary steps to construct a new water pipe across a narrow section of the lake should start next week.

"The first thing ... the contractor is going to do is, he's got to build kind of a bridge or a berm of solid material across Pineview Reservoir," Justin Anderson, director of public services for Ogden, told the Ogden City Council Tuesday. That will give workers a solid base from which to build the pipeline atop the squishy muck of the reservoir bed.

Shelby Lofton, KSL

Anderson addressed the project at a City Council work session, offering a brief update as the reservoir level recedes to allow the work to progress. Ogden officials announced last June that the reservoir would be partially drained to expose the bed of the area where a segment of pipeline sits that connects Port Ramp Marina east across a narrow section of the reservoir to a well field, tapped to supply Ogden with drinking water.

A new section of piping will be placed parallel to the existing piping, part of the broader $100 million project to replace 6.4 miles in all of aging pipeline from the well field near Pineview east through the Ogden Canyon to Ogden. Water hauled through the system serves some 120,000 customers in the Ogden area, and work on the project started in 2024.

While the overall project is to be done by the spring of 2029, Anderson said installation of the new piping across the bed of Pineview Reservoir should be done by next January. The existing pipeline section will be rehabilitated and used as backup to the new section to be installed parallel to it.

With Pineview Reservoir in Weber County emptying, plans to install a replacement section of pipeline across the bed of the lake are expected to move forward next week. Part of the drained lake bed is pictured on Sunday. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

The city has offered incentives to the contractor handling the project if the pipeline section across Pineview is done early and crews are to work 20 to 24 hours a day, six days a week, Anderson said.

The decision to draw down water at Pineview to enable installation of the new pipeline section stemmed in part from the low snowpack of last winter and dry conditions that were expected to lower its level anyway. Capacity was at 17% of normal last week and expected to dip to below 2% as part of the drawdown.

"The water that is coming out of Pineview Reservoir is getting put in either Willard Bay or it's getting moved and consumed in other areas. Some of it might be released into the Great Salt Lake," Anderson said.

County emptying, plans to install a replacement section of pipeline across the bed of the lake are expected to move forward next week. An empty Becker's beer can is pictured on the drained lake bed on Sunday. Becker's was an Ogden company. (Photo: Tim Vandenack, KSL.com)

Those involved in the project have said a slightly above-average snow year would fill the reservoir back up.

Pineview Reservoir is a popular summer recreation draw, though removal of the water has hampered much of the typical activity, at least in recent weeks. However, the exposed lake bed drew many visitors over the long Labor Day weekend, some with metal detectors searching for buried treasure.

Contributing: Shelby Lofton

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