Our Vision

How does a dam on Bear River conserve Mink Creek Water?

First of all, it provides extra storage. The three current reservoirs provide a little over 18,000 acre feet of usable storage (an acre foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre with water a foot deep).

The proposed new reservoir would add about 17,300 acre feet of additional storage, and most importantly, provide clean and renewable electricity to over 6,700 homes. The income generated would be used to construct a gravity-fed pipeline to carry water to the farmers, saving thousands of dollars in pumping costs and loss of water due to seepage.

When the canals freeze up Mink Creek runs down its channel into the Bear River, a little below the proposed dam, but that water can be exchanged for Bear River water flowing into the dam.

The exchange makes no difference to anyone downstream and TLCC wouldn’t need to file for an allocation of Bear River water, just for permission to do the exchange.

The ability to store winter runoff is one of the most attractive features of the proposed dam.

The problem remains in how to get the water from the reservoir uphill and into the canal system.