Utah’s Reservoirs Are Dropping and the Bottom Is Getting Closer

Utah’s reservoir system ended July at 57 percent capacity. That is 22 percentage points lower than the same time last year and 17 points below the July average. The system lost 11 points in a single month. Laura Haskell, drought coordinator for the Utah Division of Water Resources, put the drop in context for the Deseret News: the median decline between May and July is typically 1 percent. This year it hit 13.

The statewide number hides how uneven the damage is. Porcupine Reservoir in Cache County is still listed at full capacity, and Jordanelle is above 60 percent. But six reservoirs are at 10 percent capacity or less: Gunnison, Otter Creek, Panguitch Lake, Piute, Upper Enterprise, and Yuba. State wildlife officials have raised fishing limits at some of them because the shrinking pools are harming their own ecosystems. Boat ramps are closing. The Great Salt Lake sits more than 7 feet below its minimum healthy level. Almost 95 percent of the state remains in at least severe drought, and last year’s record low snowpack means there was never much water coming to refill the system.

The bottom becomes the shoreline

Here is what a capacity number does not say. When a reservoir drops toward 10 percent, the bottom does not stay hidden. Mud flats that have been underwater for decades become shoreline. Whatever sank out there over the years is suddenly sitting in a few feet of water or standing in open air: vehicles, trailers, anchors, tires, lost equipment, trees wrapped in fishing line.

The contamination that debris carries does not evaporate with the water. A submerged vehicle holds fuel, and gasoline carries benzene, a compound that dissolves readily in water and is a recognized human carcinogen. It holds engine oil, ethylene glycol antifreeze that is toxic to wildlife that drinks it, and a lead acid battery. At full pool, that source sits far from swimmers and far from the intakes. At 10 percent, the same source sits in a fraction of the water, closer to the fish the state is now telling anglers to pull out faster.

Low water is a recovery window

There is another way to read the same numbers. Every foot a reservoir drops makes the bottom easier to survey and cheaper to reach. A target that needs a full dive operation at high water can sit within wading distance at drawdown. Sonar covers more of the lakebed in less time. Rigging runs shorter. The window is real, and it closes the moment a good snowpack refills the system, which is exactly what everyone in Utah is hoping for. The monsoons have already pushed mountain soil moisture about 7 points above normal, the article notes, which sets up a more efficient runoff next spring. If the water comes back, whatever is still on the bottom goes back under with it, for another decade or another generation.

Watching the water line

Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways. We are a diver organization first, and we watch reservoir levels the way farmers watch snowpack, because low water is when the bottom tells you what it is holding. Real lake cleanup means reaching the bottom, not skimming the surface. Right now, across central and southern Utah, the bottom is closer than it has been in years.

If you spot a vehicle, boat, or debris pile in a drawn down Utah reservoir, report it at fathomrestoration.org. A sighting logged this summer can become a recovery plan before the water comes back.

Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways. Donate / Volunteer / Report a vehicle at fathomrestoration.org.

Source: https://www.deseret.com/utah/2026/07/31/utah-reservoirs-struggled-in-july-but-monsoons-provide-a-key-below-ground-benefit/