The dredgers have run into a hard-pan layer recently. This layer is very tough to get through with current equipment. This may cause us to change the focus of dredging. The original plan, with the available money, was to dredge E dock, D dock, the Ranger dock, the Service dock, the main channel inside the marina from the Ranger dock through the mouth as well as the launch ramp through the mouth to a level of 4185.3 feet msl (mean sea level). The hard pan has been hit at a depth of 4187.5 feet msl, or 2.2 feet shallower than our goal. In the original plan B dock and C dock were not to be dredged. Then additional money was found. Enough to dredge from A dock through the NW slips of B dock gaining us 21 more usable slips. But with the discovery of the hardpan it does not look financially feasible to dredge down to 4185.3 feet msl. We have gone back to the drawing board and are looking at dredging the WHOLE NW basin (A through E dock, Ranger and Service Dock) down to a level of 4187.5 msl with the following exceptions: 1. Most of the NW side of E dock has already been dredged to a depth of 4185.3 msl 2. Most of D dock has been dredged to a depth of 4186 msl 3. Marina mouth to the boat ramp would be dredged to 4195.3 msl With this proposal, at the current lake level of 4195.5 msl it would give us 8 feet of water minimum through the NW basin with E dock, launch ramp and marina mouth being about 10.2 We are hoping to still gain about a foot of water from the 302% snowpack still sitting in the upper elevations of the Wasatch and Uinta mountains. If that happens we might see a low lake level sometime in November of 4195 msl or about ½ lower than we are now. If we dont see that foot of rise we could see a lake level this fall of 4194 msl which would leave the shallower areas in the NW basin with a depth of about 6.5 before the lake rises again early next winter. In short, we may not gain as much depth, due to the hardpan, as we were hoping, but we would gain 90 more slips in addition to the 80 slips already dredged with enough water to be used through the year. Instead of completing the dredging in the next two weeks it may take through June to complete digging. Docks would begin to be put back together before the end of June though. I just wanted to keep you up on where we are with things. Dave Dave Shearer Harbor Master Great Salt Lake State Marina Antelope Island State Marina 801-209-9142
