Boulger Reservoir will be drained due to an upcoming mining project. Photo credit: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
SANPETE COUNTY, Utah — The Boulger Reservoir will be drained for an upcoming mining project according to Utah water officials.
The reservoir is stocked with Rainbow Trout by the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources.
The plan is to drain the reservoir, which is in Sanpete County near Flat Canyon Campground, into nearby Electric Lake. This will allow Skyline Mine to carry out mining operations beneath it.
A spokesperson for the Utah Division of Water Rights says it was approached by Wolverine Fuels, who owns Skyline Mine, about draining the reservoir.
The Division of Water Rights says it is draining the reservoir out of precaution to prevent a dam failure.
“Just to ensure that we don’t have an uncontrolled failure or other issues with the dam,” said Everett Taylor with the Utah Division of Water Rights.
Taylor said that Wolverine Fuels is installing equipment to monitor the safety of the reservoir while it is draining and before refilling it.
“I do believe that this monitoring will allow us to then address any issues that the mining causes,” he said.
According to The Division of Natural Resources, draining will begin this fall.
“In order to drain the reservoir, we have to physically pump the water out of the reservoir,” Taylor said. “And then to maintain the drain, we’d have to maintain those pumps in place to keep the water level down.”
The Division of Wildlife Resources says it’s upping the fishing limit at the reservoir so that fish aren’t wasted when draining begins. Wolverine Fuels did not respond this morning to KSL’s request to comment.
Devin Oldroyd contributed to this report.