KNOWLEDGE: RIVER projects in Logan Utah, and its impact on Cache Valley

 Let’s preserve and enhance our priceless amenity:

The Little Logan River

OR

"Treating a cat like a dog won't makes it bark”

Dr. Susanne Janecke, Sept 16, 2025

Summary comments about the LOGAN RIVER WATERSHED PROJECT.  

This public works project has laudable goals to update outdated irrigation infrastructure of several canals that divert water north from the Little Logan River. 

Published plans for this project also UNNECESSARILY and very negatively dewater and mismanage the magnificent Little Logan River in our midst, in violation of Utah river law 73-3-29 

Logan, Utah, the Island, the Great Salt Lake, and east Cache Valley area between Hyde Park and the Logan River will all SUFFER from a project. It plans to divert almost all the Little Logan River's water upstream of legal diversion points into pressurized pipes. It also seeks new users that use EXTRA river water to water their lawns, while our beautiful river and the Great Salt Lake dry up.

The Logan River Watershed Project 

must do more to:

+ACTUALLY and FULLY honor the public's rights, 

+preserve rivers and landscapes, 

enhance our fabulous greenbelt of parks, 

+maintain sufficient open flow (>>8 cfs) of natural river water,

+restore winter river water to Logan, Utah’s rivers and Island area,

+and lease unused water rights to help prevent further collapse

of the Great Salt lake and Utah's economy.

KEY POINT:  THE LITTLE LOGAN RIVER IS A NATURAL RIVER--AND THIS EASILY PROVABLE FACT ENTITLES THE PUBLIC TO PROTECTIONS

There is overwhelming evidence that the Little Logan River is a natural river along its entire length.

See the FAQ in this post to see a summary of the evidence that experts use to prove that the river is a river along its entire length.

Problem statement:

The Little Logan River is a natural river, not a man-made canal. Plans to upgrade the canals that are fed by the river will degrade the Little Logan River unless its river status is protected, as required by law since the early 1970s. 

River status gives Little Logan River extra protection. Unfortunately, sponsors of Logan River Watershed Project appear to be planning and managing the Little Logan River as if it were a man-canal that can be modified at will.

A win-win solution is possible with ZERO impact on the water provided to existing or potential water users.  The excess unused water right (~ 45-55 cfs) could keep the Little Logan River healthy and satisfy the law. 

Key to this win-win solution is the fact that the Crockett Canal companies have rights to 140 cfs of river water at peak flows but there have been no users for more than 85 cfs in at least two decades. Records dating back to the 1970s show that the full allotment was NEVER in the Little Logan River on its way to canals. Peak flows have been below 100 cfs since 1997 and below 120 cfs since about 1987.

The large excess right is not being shared with the public that owns the water.

The Logan River Watershed Project is motivated by a desire to spend tax moneys (~135 million dollars) to find new users of the unused water right. 

With FAR TOO FEW USERS of the Crockett water rights, it is remarkable and noteworthy that the sponsors propose an extremely stingy amount of water for the Little Logan River.  

They propose that ZERO water flows in the Little Logan River during droughts and a maximum of 10 cfs during unspecified conditions. 

Grinches all!

TLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Sponsors have erroneously claimed that most of the Little Logan River is a canal. This claim is critical for sponsors to perpetrate the alarming degradation planned, with limited transparency, to our incredible river. (Many updates since October 2024 have not been shared with the public)

The last updated version of the Logan River Watershed Project does not treat the Little Logan river as a river, with required legal protections. It appears that sponsors have barely considered the law or the public’s rights in their planning.

Yet the public was assured REPEATEDLY that the plan for upgrading infrastructure does not damage the Little Logan River. Sadly those assurances never matched with posted documents later posted to describe the project, nor with checks of other facts.  

The Little Logan river will not be healthy unless it has enough water to sustain its current uses, including very popular water sports by families, cooling, environmental functions and fish begin to return to this river. 10-15 cfs guaranteed in the summer along the entire river would accomplish this public benefit. 

The published plan for the Little Logan River promises to limit water flows in the Little Logan River to a very low and worrisome range of ZERO to TEN cfs. 

Sponsors have told us that they are not legally permitted to allow water to continue to flow in the river bed after the irrigation season ends in October.

The assertion/myth/speculation/ of the river being a canal was seemingly never tested against the legal, geologic, regulatory or historic evidence. 

TLTLTLTLTLTLT

 All rivers have additional protections that canals do not have (Utah code 73-3-29).  That law requires that there must be a balance of water rights and the public's rights to recreation, a healthy environment and aquatic species.  

The public rights to a healthy natural river would be well-served if adults were able to tube in the river without going aground (~15 cfs flowing) and winter desiccation ends so that fish can reestablish.  

 Qr code helps you to share the report

By Dr. Susanne Janecke

Updated July 2025

Return to this information portal

Tinyurl.com/savellr 

Tinyurl.com/RESTORELLR

SKIP AHEAD TO A POWERPOINT TALK (5 minutes) about the Little Logan river's precarious future (use find "talk").