This Saturday, August 10th, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m you’re invited to join the Utah Rivers Council for an informative field trip as part of their Water Roots series. They will head to the Camp Fife area, 25 minutes west of Logan on the banks of the Bear River, which is the site of the proposed Bear River Development. The council has brought together speakers, local experts, those from the financial sector, ecological activists and scientists to talk about the importance of the Bear River and how careful we have to be when it comes to the future of this irreplaceable resource.
On KVNU’s For the People program on Tuesday, water conservation specialist Nick Halberg said the event aims to call attention to the harm the proposed development would bring.
“Essentially, what we want to do is bring elected officials, policy influencers and any constituents in the area, to the site of one of these proposed dams. The Bear River Development project is a project that’s been proposed by the state of Utah that would build three new dams on the Bear River, and then divert all that water via a 90 mile pipe down to communities all over the Wasatch Front, all the way down to Salt Lake City, pretty much,” he explained.
Halberg said if that happens, the Great Salt Lake will lose much of its inflows. That could lead to the lake drying up, exposing the lake bed. And when prevailing winds would come from that area, they could overtake the winds of Utah Lake, depositing a lot of dust into the Salt Lake Valley, worsening the air quality.
Cost for the field trip is $10 and includes a catered lunch. You need to RSVP – which you can do by calling Halberg at Utah Rivers Council at (801) 486-4776. More information is at www.utahrivers.org.
AUDIO: Jason Williams talks to Nick Halberg of Utah Rivers Council on FTP