The Utah State Legislature has designated the Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands as the executive authority for the management of sovereign lands and the state's mineral estates on lands other than school and institutional trust lands. Sovereign lands are managed under the public trust doctrine. Utah Lake is one of three lakes in the state that were deemed 'navigable' at statehood and granted to the State of Utah. The lakebed and surrounding shoreline are made up of State Sovereign Lands. The Division manages public use and issues a permit for commercial users of the lakebed and shoreline while the Commission facilitates development. Utah Lake is managed cooperatively by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands and the Utah Lake Commission. In recent years, the lake has been prone to harmful algal blooms or HABs.

Pollution problems still remain the lake's phosphorus and mineral salt levels are in violation of the Clean Water Act. Raw sewage was dumped into the lake as late as 1967. Pollution has also caused problems with the lake's ecosystem. The carp is now estimated at 90% of the biomass of the lake and contributes to a decline in native fish populations by severely altering the ecosystem. The dominant species in the lake is the common carp, introduced in 1883 as an alternative to the overharvested native fish. The fish of the lake were overharvested by the settlers and subsequently restocked with non-native species.Īlthough thirteen species of fish were native to the lake, only the Utah sucker and the critically endangered June sucker remain. The Timpanogots were later integrated with the Mormon settlers or expelled from the area between the 1850s and 1870s. He stayed with the Timpanogots band of Ute Tribe for three days. The first European to see Utah Lake was Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante in 1776. Recently the lake has been at a lower level because of a drought.

If the lake's water level rises above that, the pumps and gates on the Jordan River are left open. The elevation of the lake is at 4,489 feet (1,368 m) above sea level. Evaporation accounts for 42% of the lake's outflow, which leaves the lake slightly saline. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Salt Lake. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States.

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