WEBER COUNTY, Utah — Anyone heading out to Pineview Reservoir in Weber County this summer won't see much water, so why are officials removing even more during the ongoing drought?
It doesn't take much to get Aisha Hamra-Pinto excited about reservoir nestled in the Ogden Valley.
"It's pretty convinient... and it's beautiful.. it's always been the place that I've come ever since I was a little girl to go camping, or to go to the beach," she said, "but these days, it's where I come to clear my head."
Aisha doesn't understand why the man-made reservoir needs to be drained, but said it's fine with her.
Ogden City is working on a multi-year project to change a 55-year-old pipeline that brings drinking water to half the city. The reservoir's levels will be brought down significantly during the process.
"Visibly, it's going to be extremely low looking from the surface for onlookers, in that 2 percent range," explained Jeffrey Putzke with Sunrise Engineering.
The project is years in the making, and the city actually moved up plans to reduce Pineview's levels and replace the pipe this year after the low snowpack season.
"We realize that the reservoir is going to be drawn down almost to the point of being where we needed to do the project," said Ogden Public Services Executive Director Justin Anderson.
Anderson shared how the current pipe, and the century-old one through Ogden Canyon, is leaking water, so replacing it soon will help. The water from Pineview Reservoir will go to Willard Bay and other tributaries.
"We feel like all the conservation people are doing is still going to be contained in a reservoir, that we can have the least amount of impact and also not have to have the reservoir have low levels two years in a row," Anderson said.
"It's unfortunate that they won't have as much water a little earlier this year to launch the boats," added Putzke, "but the reminder here is the primary purpose is to provide drinking water, because that comes out of the reservoir water as well."
Aisha hopes to be back when the reservoir levels rise once again.
"The timing of it is not important because it is a necessity, like its going to happen with or without the snowpack," she said, "and hopefully it will be able to bounce back with the snowpack."
