Problematic Causey Reservoir water release to continue for weeks
May 16, 2023, 6:07 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm
CAUSEY RESERVOIR, Utah — The Causey Reservoir has been an impressive sight as it spills over. At the same time, it’s the reason behind flooding along the south fork of the Ogden River.
It’s the size of the reservoir and the massive amounts of melting snow that are making that happen.
“Every night the water rises. We have kind of a little river running through the property and we just deal with it,” resident Lynn Berry said. He knows during the busy years; he’ll have to try and control the waters around this family campground.
“Yeah, it gets up there. But normally it only lasts about a week where this year it’s going to last a lot longer,” Berry said.
Much longer because of the sheer volume of water passing through Causey Reservoir. It’s also why the lake isn’t the nice blue color you may be used to seeing.
The loud crashing and the sight of it all are drawing some small crowds.
“I think it is absolutely amazing! I think we’ve been blessed with the water we’ve needed and a little inconvenience is worth it,” Verda Rinaldi said as she watched.
It s all tough to control, even for the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District.
“And It will spill at least for another month, so it will be spilling for a while,” Scott Paxman said. He is the General Manager and CEO at Weber Basin.
Because Causey is only about 1/14th the size of Pineview, Paxman said they get about a week-long window to work with flood control here.
“We had it drawn down to between 30 and 40% capacity. That’s as low as we dare take it for fish habitat and power generation,” Paxton said.
Within a week it was already full and spilling over. Paxman says they do what they can. People who own property in the area approach it the same way.
“We’re prepared as much as we can be so, we’re at the mercy of nature,” Berry said.
The spillway at Causey is expected to peak within the week.
Paxton said Causey spills over even during some of the driest drought years, just for a much shorter period of time.
