Project Details

The Dinsdale Ditch Company was established since the late 1800's. As the city of Ogden has developed around the historically agricultural water system that was originally an open ditch, much of that ditch became buried in pipelines and made inaccessible for maintenance. In addition, much of the historical farmland is no longer agriculture, but has been transformed and developed. As a result the water user base has not been able to keep up with the maintenance demands of the water system.

More recently their diversion structure located near the Ogden Rodeo Grounds has become degraded reducing the ability of the water company to divert water for their use, and the failing structure has caused a small vertical drop in the Ogden River-affecting safety and fish habitat. Finally a 660 ft long intake pipeline buried beneath the pedestrian pathway has either collapsed or been inundated by roots from the surrounding riparian vegetation, which has greatly limited conveyance.

The degraded infrastructure and past lack of financing from a user base has necessitated the water company to look at partnerships to develop a suitable solution to continue providing water to their users and also develop a sustainable diversion point. TU has agreed to work with the water company to find a solution that provides benefits to the water users and the public.

The Dinsdale Water Company has recently changed leadership and developed a more proactive funding structure to provide resources to keep up with O&M requirements and provide them with the ability to provide matching funds for infrastructure modernization.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

This project, along with the prior Ogden River Restoration Project, will directly restore the degraded condition of the lowland riparian and lotic habitats within and around the Ogden River.

In 2011 Ogden City was nominated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as one of ten cities nationwide to be included in the Urban Conservation Treaty for Migratory Birds.  That determination was based largely on the ongoing success of the Ogden River Restoration Project.

Ogden City General Plan: Involve Ogden, Plan Your Future:
This community derived plan emphasizes increased outdoor recreation, creation of additional open space and protection of natural resources, including the Ogden River. Specific goals supported by this project are to continue sustainably developing the river pathways with special attention should be focused on developing green space oasis areas which create points of interest along the Parkway.

https://www.ogdencity.com/DocumentCenter/View/1031

Mountain View Community Plan:
This neighborhood plan call for the completion of the Ogden River Restoration Project to enhance the quality of life of those that live in the neighborhood that surrounds the project.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Our preferred construction methods will be to remove the existing diversion structure and move the physical point of diversion downstream 600 feet and install an off channel intake cistern with a solar powered pump system to deliver water into the existing canal system. We then would like to reclaim the 600 ft length of bank by removing the pipeline and reconstructing floodplain along the river, providing habitat diversity within this urbanized reach of the Ogden River.

This preferred method is beset by several unknowns. Specifically, we need to know what the elevation difference between the existing diversion point and a point downstream is, and what potential pump requirements may be. We also need to develop bank stability and pipeline disposal plans if we are able to remove the old pipeline and reconstruct the floodplain.

We propose to answer these questions be working with a qualified river engineer to develop a suitable restoration design and plan. Coming up with an engineered design is important because risks are high in an urban reach, and many unknown factors may exist, which may change our implementation designs.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.