Year Two of Releases on Utah’s Weber River Set

Photo by Bill Hunt

This year marks the second year of recreational releases on the Scrambled Eggs section of the Weber River in Utah! American Whitewater negotiated these releases over the past few years and is excited to celebrate year two, and wow what a different year it is! Massive snowpack is providing flows that far exceed the hydropower project’s diversion so there is water in the river 24/7. Unlike last year when getting a minimum paddling flow on release days was a minor miracle, this year release days could be quite high, after a long season of high flows. It’s a good problem to have!

 This year’s releases will be June 10 & 17 and July 1 & 15, between 10 and 2 pm.  As a reminder, the releases are based on providing all of the water that is in the river with the hydropower diversion shutdown during the release period.  If the flows are high enough the plant may stay online and keep diverting flows, but this will only occur if the river flow exceeds 1200 cfs (which appears likely at least for the first flows this year). Note that currently the river is running about 3000 cfs, and starting to come down, but flows on release days are still potentially up to 10 times higher than what the flows were last year, at least for the June flows. Regardless, expect much higher flows than we’ve had since 2017, and releases that are much more challenging than last year.

Similar to last year, please respect the Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company’s request that we portage around their diversion dam on the left (and don’t climb on or touch any of their infrastructure), even if the diversion gates are open. It is essential that each member of the paddling community enjoys these releases in a manner that is respectful of the other stakeholders in the river corridor.

Current flows and release dates (need updated) are available on PacifiCorp’s Weber River webpage.

Additional information for this section of the Weber River is also available on the AW’s River Page for the Scrambled Eggs Run.

~ Article by Charlie Vincent, AW Regional Volunteer ~

This was originally posted at americanwhitewater.org.