The Army has abandoned a small reservoir in Red Butte
Canyon east of Salt Lake City, Utah, leaving federal, state and
county agencies playing a game of political hot
potato.
Red Butte Reservoir is one of several
refuges established in northern Utah to protect the June sucker – a
fish native to Utah Lake, south of the Great Salt Lake. Some 400
suckers placed in the reservoir in 1994 are thriving, says Reed
Harris, director of the Utah field office of the Utah Fish and
Wildlife Service.
But no one knows who is
responsible for the reservoir. The land it sits on was transferred
from the Army to the Forest Service in 1970, but the Army agreed to
continue to manage the water – until it changed its mind in
March.
Attorneys for the Forest Service say the
Army cannot legally give up responsibility for the aging dam, which
would cost about $2 million to bring up to modern safety standards
or about $5 million to remove. Salt Lake County and the city of
Salt Lake have considered taking responsibility for the reservoir,
but both say the repair costs are too high.
The
Fish and Wildlife Service could remove the fish from the reservoir,
but would prefer them to remain in place. Says Harris, “This is one
of the rare instances where I don’t want to see them tear a dam
out.”
* Jim
Woolf
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Nobody gives a damn about this dam.
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