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When is a Lake Not a Lake? When it is Ken's Lake, Moab, Utah
In 2012, a continuing drought on the Colorado Plateau created a meager spring snowpack in the Sierra La Sal. When I visited Ken’s Lake,
near Moab, Utah in April 2012, I was encouraged by the volume of water
that I saw behind the dam. Although I did not know it at the time,
there was more water present than in any April for the past five years.
As a casual observer, I saw what looked like a good water year for
both irrigation and water sports on the lake.
In August 2012, the Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency (GWSSA) issued
its summer status report on Ken’s Lake. According to the document, the
Ken’s Lake water level has dropped from April’s 101% of average to a
mid-August thirty-five percent of average. Using the first two charts
in the document, I was able to determine that Ken’s Lake currently held
1000 acre/feet less water than it did in a normal year.
Next,
I looked down at the five-year storage chart. Again, the results were
alarming. With just over 400 acre/feet of water currently impounded, Ken’s Lake
was heading to its lowest August levels in the past five years. With
that trend, it was obvious that Ken’s Lake was destined to become Ken’s
Lake Puddle again this year.
Some will say, “So what?
It is a human made water storage reservoir. If all of the water gets
used up every year, then it is serving its purpose”. Although that may
be true, Ken’s Lake is also the largest recreational lake in the Moab
area. When the reservoir goes dry, there is nothing of consequence to
attract campers, hikers or wildlife. The lake is also a bellwether for drought conditions throughout the Colorado Plateau. If the towering La Sal Range gets little snow and has a fast spring runoff, few other places will fare much better. The regional drought seems likely to expand and become more prevalent in the Four Corners region.
It
behooves the stakeholders and managers of Ken’s Lake to act now and
prevent it from becoming a permanent eyesore. The easiest way to save
the lake is to stop allocating water for alfalfa farming and other
water-intensive crops. If a farmer is actually growing fodder for his
or her own livestock, the GWSSA could make an exception. Instead of
alfalfa, if each stakeholder planted grapes or fruit trees, the Spanish Valley could rise again as a tree crop and viticulture area.
If Spanish Valley and Moab Valley Farmers and environmentalists work
together, Ken’s Lake may well remain a beautiful body of water, enjoyed
by all. If not, will the entitled stakeholders pretend that there is
no problem, or will they accept responsibility for the outcome?
The Farmer and the Cowboy Should Be Friends (of the Environment)
In early October 2011, I made my annual fall
pilgrimage to Moab, Utah. Having lived there for three months in the
fall of 2005, I knew that October weather in Moab was unpredictable.
After the first cold front of the season blew in with me, I was
surprised at how quickly weather in the Spanish Valley returned to its default position, which is Indian summer.
On October 6, 2011, it was sunny in the valley, yet storm clouds still hung on the peaks of the La Sal Range. What better day could I find to visit Ken’s Lake, out on Poverty Flat, near the head of the Spanish Valley?
When I arrived, I saw a few campers in the
campground, yet on only one boat floating upon the lake. As I watched,
I could see the oarsman rowing his pontoon-style fishing boat towards
shore. Although I stood no further than thirty feet from where he
made landfall, the old angler never looked up or acknowledged my
presence.
Only when I asked him why the lake was so high
this year did he speak. He gave me a few matter-of-fact sentences,
telling me all that I needed to know. “It was a good snow year. There
was still snow on the north-facing slopes until August. The slower
snowmelt this year kept filling the lake, even as
irrigation water flowed from the dam. Still, it hasn’t rained much
lately and the lake is a lot lower than it was just a few weeks ago.”
After I thanked him for the information, he returned to his silent
mode, placed his boat on a small trailer and drove away without
another word.
After he departed, I marveled at the differences I
could see from just one year earlier, in October 2010. When I wrote
an article about that visit, I called it “Ken’s Puddle”,
which is what it looked like to me. At that time, I suggested that
farmers and others who shared in Ken’s Lake water might want to look
towards conservation of this resource, rather than exploitation. Did my
words and wishes have some positive effect on water levels in the
lake? On the other hand, did fewer regional dust storms this year keep more snow in the higher reaches of the La Sal Range watershed until later in the season?
Cynics
would say that those entitled to shares of Ken’s Lake Water took
every drop that they could get this year. Redemption came only when
Mother Nature replenished the water faster than the outfall pipe
carried it away to crops and cattle. I prefer to think that even those
who are“entitled”
are conserving more and using less of those sacred waters. By his
demeanor, I would guess that the lone angler I saw that day was a
longtime Moab rancher or farmer. By not drawing his full share of
Ken’s Lake water this year; did he help Ken’s Lake to remain one of
the few cold-water fisheries in Southeastern Utah?
After writing about Spanish Valley water issues during 2009, I realized that I had never seen Ken’s Lake up close. On a clear afternoon in October 2010, I set out to remedy that situation. Heading south from Moab on Spanish Valley Drive (The Old Spanish Trail), I turned left on San Juan County Road 175 (better known as Ken’s Lake Road). Soon, I could see the inside of the dam to my left, but could see no water impounded behind it.
Watch the Video - Ken's Lake, Moab, Utah
After arriving at the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) parking lot on the south side of the lake, I finally spied Ken’s
Lake itself. In the distance, and well below the level of a weed-choked
gravel beach, I saw a large puddle, down near the base of the earthen
dam. Although I had read about overuse of the Ken’s Lake Reservoir,
I did not expect to see such a sorry sight. Other than as a curiosity,
there was little to attract visitors or campers to Ken’s Lake that fall.
Who allowed Ken’s Lake to almost disappear and why?
To answer that question one must look at two seminal issues that
continue to shape politics on the Colorado Plateau – “water rights” and “grazing rights”.
Although these are complex issues with no easy solutions, suffice to
say that “entitlement thinking” on both issues has led to a long-term degradation of the environment
in Southeastern Utah. With appropriate will, the greater community
could reverse some of the damage done. In order to do so, all concerned
must join to reevaluate and redistribute “water rights” and “grazing
rights” under terms that our now drier environment can sustain.
Moab historian Faun McConkie Tanner exemplified the
traditional view of cattle grazing in the area, both then and now. In
her 1976 work, “The Far Country,
- A Regional History of Moab and La Sal, Utah” she wrote, “The grazing
of cattle and sheep has been a principal industry since the settlement
of the region. Supervised and limited grazing under Forest Service
regulation protects the plant growth and in some measure saves soil
erosion caused by overgrazing.” Almost forty years later, her rosy
picture of what is now a deeply degraded environment prevails.
In his 1994, “Coyote’s History of Moab”, Jose’ Knighton
states that, “Corporate cattle operations abandoned Moab (in 1896)
because the land could no longer support their huge herds. Hit-and-run
exploitation of resources would eventually become an established pattern
of abuse for Moab. But a century ago, decades of overgrazing took their
toll. Flash floods roared down Mill Creek and Pack Creek, silting up dams, carving deep gullies and destroying homesteads.”
In 1981, after tireless promotion by Kenneth McDougald
and others in Moab, engineers first filled Ken’s Lake with water
diverted from Upper Mill Creek. From its inception, water use at Ken’s
Lake reflected Faun McConkie’s old Moab, not the more environmentally
aware approach of Jose’ Knighton. In my research, I could find no
references to which agency decided who would receive shares of Ken’s
Lake water. Today, however the Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency
(GWSSA) delivers the vast majority of Ken’s Lake water to alfalfa
farmers in the southern Spanish Valley.
Here we can see the grand circle that started with
Moab’s cattle raising origins. Since the 1880s, the biodiversity and
availability of natural forage in the area have steadily declined. One
hundred and forty years after cattle first roamed the Moab Valley;
current residents live in a significantly degraded environment. Making
an emphatic point, McConkie Tanner states that, "All of those
interviewed stated that sagebrush grew tall enough for a man on
horseback to ride hidden through brush, and that grass grew to a horse's
belly in Moab, but at La Sal this was almost reversed." No such
microenvironment exists today in Grand or San Juan Counties, as every
inch of usable land had at least once seen cattle hooves breaking
through the crust of ancient soils.
Some would say that Moab exists in a desert, which has always been a desert and those who wish it to be otherwise should forget about it.
Rather than a desert, early accounts tell us that the Spanish Valley
resembled a Garden of Eden. I, for one believe that it can be so once
again, but only if a portion of the available water supply goes toward
reestablishment of native plants and natural habitats in what post
cattle-boom settlers called Poverty Flat.
The source for all Spanish Valley aquifers, reservoirs such as Ken’s Lake and streams is the Sierra La Sal,
southeast of Moab. Over the years, cattle and sheep ranching in
Southern Utah and Northern Arizona have denuded much of the land. Now,
each spring, dust storms arise on the Navajo Reservation, north of Kayenta, Arizona.
Prevailing winds carry the dust north, through Bluff, Blanding and
Monticello, Utah. As the storms intensify, their vortices vacuum the
land of soil. As the storms lift into the cool air surrounding the La
Sal Range, they dump their blanket of soil in muddy rainstorms
reminiscent of biblical disasters.
In the spring of 2009, one such storm hit both the La Sal Range and Moab. Starting as a dust storm
more powerful than any current resident of Moab could recall, the
accompanying deluge of muddy rain painted every car in Moab with the red
and brown colors of desert soil. After the storm, the remaining
snowpack in the high country glowed pink in the afternoon light. With the pink snow having a higher albedo,
solar energy rapidly melted what remained. This gave Ken’s Lake only a
quick shot of water, which was not enough to satisfy the demand for
irrigation water. During the resultant draining of the lake,
recreational and environmental interests received no consideration at
all.
Many streams in the La Sal Range converge at Upper
Mill Creek, from which a 650-foot unlined tunnel diverts part of the
natural flow to Ken’s Lake. In decades past, the inflow to the lake came
gradually and continued throughout the spring and into the summer. In
recent years, Ken’s Lake receives one rapid shot of water during spring
snowmelt, and then must rely on rainfall for replenishment throughout
the summer and fall. With a combination of decreased snowpack, rapid
snowmelt and over-subscription of water rights, Ken’s Lake becomes
another symbol of the degraded environment around Moab.
Officially, the Utah Department of Environmental
Quality/Division of Water Quality has washed its hands of the
environmental issues at Ken’s Lake. Their written statement is,
“Temperature impairment is a result of natural causes. The
energy input is a direct result of heating by the sun”. To anyone who
visits Ken’s Lake in the fall or winter, it is obvious that a lack of
stored water causes wild swings in lake water temperatures. Neglect,
abuse and overuse of grazing lands and water sources upstream and upwind
of Ken’s Lake have creating a mud puddle in the fall and a frozen ice
sheet in the winter.
When first built, authorities assumed that Ken’s
Lake would be a warm water fishery. In the days before agricultural
interests routinely drained the lake dry each summer, a diverse
cold-water fishery established itself there. While casting a blind eye
toward the end of cold-water fisheries in the area, the Utah Division of
Water Quality plans to designate the lake as a warm water fishery. To
the state, it to be a question of, “Warm water, cold water; who cares?”
Ironically, the minuscule size of the lake during fall and winter allows
it to freeze solid. As the BLM puts on its blinders and looks the other
way, some local residents use the frozen pond for ice-skating. How even the most callous bureaucrats could designate an oft frozen pond as a warm-water fishery defies my imagination.
The number of cattle in the Ken’s lake watershed and nearby dry areas such as Behind the Rocks
is lower today than it was in the 1890s and perhaps even lower than in
the 1990s. Still, damage done over more than a century of abuse will not
repair itself while the trampling and overgrazing continue. Only by
fencing off the most sensitive and degraded areas from all grazing will
the land regenerate itself. On demonstration plots, volunteers could replant native species of
ground cover. With permission from those who “own” shares, maybe a
squirt or two of Ken’s Lake water would facilitate re-vegetation at
those sites.
It is time for independent-minded farmers in the
Spanish Valley to forgo a small portion of their Ken's Lake water
allotments. Do farmers need up to six cuttings of alfalfa in a single
season, or could they get by with three or four? In the summer, a trip
south on Spanish Valley Drive is like an obstacle course. Each day,
profligately wasted water showers vehicles at several places along the
road. If you need a quick car wash, it only takes a few minutes for
complete inundation. One needs to look no farther than the permanent
water stains on the roadway to see who is at fault. In a better world,
farmers would relinquish a small portion of their sacrosanct entitlements in favor of the greater good. If so, Ken’s Lake might live up to Ken McDougald’s vision of an agricultural reservoir that also provides year-round recreational opportunities to residents and visitors alike.
In their state of denial, the BLM, the state of Utah
and the GWSSA cannot see or admit that Ken’s Lake is a serial disaster,
which might fit easily into the plot of the movie, Groundhog Day.
Only when ranchers, farmers and government officials admit that the
environment can no longer sustain a mid-twentieth century approach to
water and grazing entitlements, will there be change.
I see a day in the not too distant future when all
the stakeholders in this environmental, economic and political conundrum
will rise to the occasion. When they do, they shall discover a process
whereby we can save Ken’s Lake from its current state of repetitive annual destruction.
Article updated 08/23/18
Comment
from a friend: You are so right! One item not mentioned (DOG
POLLUTION). No one picks up after their dog. THANKS - Scott Taylor
Next,
I looked down at the five-year storage chart. Again, the results were
alarming. With just over 400 acre/feet of water currently impounded, Ken’s Lake
was heading to its lowest August levels in the past five years. With
that trend, it was obvious that Ken’s Lake was destined to become Ken’s
Lake Puddle again this year.
It
behooves the stakeholders and managers of Ken’s Lake to act now and
prevent it from becoming a permanent eyesore. The easiest way to save
the lake is to stop allocating water for alfalfa farming and other
water-intensive crops. If a farmer is actually growing fodder for his
or her own livestock, the GWSSA could make an exception. Instead of
alfalfa, if each stakeholder planted grapes or fruit trees, the Spanish Valley could rise again as a tree crop and viticulture area. 
