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State and Weber County officials will breach a levee at the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge Thursday morning in an effort to channel water from the swollen Weber River more quickly into the Great Salt Lake and adjoining wetlands and mudflats.
The work, aimed at minimizing flooding in west Weber County around Plain City, will begin about 8:30 a.m.
The decision comes after the Weber County Commission declared a state of emergency late Tuesday. That allows the county to work more closely with state officials, said Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson.
"We understand the mission for creating [wildlife] habitat is important," he said, referring to the refuge. "But in a situation like this, we want to protect property as much as possible."
Heavy rains coupled with runoff from snowmelt has pushed the Weber River to flood stage several times this spring. In April, earthen dikes along the river gave way in several places, flooding the agricultural area in the lowlands east of the Great Salt Lake.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch along the Weber River through Saturday morning.
The river is full to its banks, said Lance Peterson, the county's emergency services manager. And water managers at the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District must increase flows from several reservoirs upstream to make way for runoff from huge snowpacks, he said.
That reality led Weber County to request the levee breach from state officials who oversee the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge through the state Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
The refuge is a natural wetland that includes man-made dikes and other structures to keep water at an optimum level for waterfowl habitat.
State and county officials are prepared to make up to three cuts in refuge dikes, if necessary.
"We know it will disperse water quickly," said Phil Douglass, northern region conservation outreach manager for DWR. "But whether it will alleviate flooding upstream, we'll have to see."
Weber County's Gibson said breaching the levee will help in the short term. But, he said, the record snowpack remaining at high elevations will continue to pose the threat of widespread flooding.
"We have spotters patrolling the river every day, looking for problem areas where we can get in there with equipment to make a patch job [on the banks]," he said. "It's like we're playing 'Whack a Mole.' "
Memorial Day weekend forecast
The National Weather Service is calling for periods of rain Thursday through Memorial Day. High temperatures Friday through Sunday are expected to be about 60 degrees. Showers Thursday and Friday won't amount to much, said forecaster Mike Seaman. But the center of the storm system could result in significant amounts of rain late Saturday and into Sunday, dropping up to 1 inch of water in mountain areas and one-half inch in valley locations. The storminess is expected to linger into Monday.