Utah Lake, a story of success and struggles

The lake with a bad reputation is gradually shedding its stigmas and etching itself into the community fabric of Utah County, where it is slowly gaining a reputation as something to be embraced, not shunned.

Luke Peterson, executive director of the Utah Lake Authority, gave a briefing Wednesday to a committee of lawmakers, a presentation that comes in advance of the Utah Lake Symposium next week at Utah Valley University.

The two-day event is broken into two parts — the first day for the general public and others to hear policy discussions — and the second day devoted to scientific research.

Peterson told members of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment interim committee that attitudes are changing over time, especially if a resident overcomes their previous discriminatory attitudes and visits the lake to see the decades of work that has been done to restore it to its best possible state.

“So a lot of what has been happening is that we are perpetuating an image that is 50 years old,” Peterson said.

Neighbors will tell others not to go to the lake because of its pollution, but if someone who moved to Utah County actually takes the time to visit the lake, their opinion changes, Peterson said.

The data the authority compiled revealed some interesting insight, Peterson said.

“Obviously, we see that people are concerned about Great Salt Lake and we all are and appreciate that. What’s behind this data that I think is interesting is how many people we discovered do not realize that Utah Lake provides water to Great Salt Lake. And I find this over and over again, it really startles me,” Peterson said. “So, helping people to understand that the fate of the two lakes is tied — so if Utah Lake dies, Great Salt Lake dies — is really critical for us as well. So that gave us some information there.”

A mistreated lake

Over a century of abuse left the lake stinky, clouded with pollution and an unwelcome neighbor. Peterson said some in the community even began to view the lake as a deficit, not anything that should be viewed as an attribute.

Early settlers introduced invasive species like carp and phragmites. The lake was used as a repository for raw sewage.

Its shallow nature lends itself to algal blooms — toxins — and the eight publicly owned water treatment plants that discharge into the lake have had to adopt new technical standards to reduce the amount of nutrients being released in the lake. Those nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, are a culprit in the formation of harmful algal blooms.

Addy Valdez, a conservation biologist with the Utah Lake Authority, said most people don’t know about the tremendous work that has been done to restore the lake and its surroundings.

She described a recent effort that tapped services of members of the honors program at Utah Valley University who had to get out in the lake itself to complete their work.

“They were showing up, not really knowing what to expect, but they were all super gung ho and in pants and jeans and tennis shoes, and they all wanted to get into the lake because they were able to get there and see, ‘Hey, this isn’t nasty, this isn’t kinda grimy and gross, it’s actually a scenic place.’ And in this video, you can see that they’re very involved, and they’re happy to be out in this place that they can call home,” Valdez said.

Next week, officials will celebrate the completion of the Provo River delta restoration project, which tackled a nearly 260-acre project a half-mile north of Utah Lake State Park.

The project restored a functioning delta between the Lower Provo River and Utah Lake to help in the recovery of the threatened June sucker, a fish found nowhere else in the world.

“A major impediment to June sucker recovery was the lack of nursery habitat for young June suckers,” Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Recovery Program Director Sarah Seegert said.

“Adult June suckers spawn in tributaries like the Provo River, and the larvae drift downstream into warmer, slower-moving areas with enough aquatic plants to provide a place to hide from predators. Until recently, these types of habitats were extremely limited in Utah Lake. The wetland vegetation in the new Provo River delta will provide young June suckers a place to hide from predators until they grow large enough to move into the lake where they can continue to adulthood.”

The public event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the new Provo River delta area’s Skipper Bay Trailhead, north of 3400 W. Boat Harbor Drive in Provo.

The event will include educational booths, activities, music and a walk-through of the new delta area. The trailhead will be closed to vehicle traffic, so attendees are encouraged to walk or ride a bike to the event. Free vehicle parking will be available at the Utah Lake State Park overflow parking area.

With a population that had once dwindled to a mere 300, earning it a place on the Endangered Species List, the June sucker has grown to more than 30,000 in number due to conservation efforts and downgraded to a threatened status.