By Elizabeth Stohlton
Melanie Hunter is concerned she won''t be able to enjoy boating at Lake Powell this year because of the low water levels, but according to state officials, she has nothing to worry about -- yet.
Hunter, a 19-year-old junior from Sandy, majoring in pre-nursing goes to Lake Powell every summer with her family.
'My family owns a time share in a house boat so we go down about 2-3 weeks every summer,' she said. 'Last summer, we went down there and it was already getting low.
Hunter said she is concerned that with the low water levels her family won''t be able to get their houseboat in and out of the water.
'We usually put our house boat in at Wahweap so we can take it out whenever we want to because we don''t have a slip, but with all of the ramp closures it will be nearly impossible to take our houseboat in and out, maybe making it impossible to take it at all,' she said.
However, National Park Service spokeswoman Char Obergh said there are a lot of misconceptions about Lake Powell.
'The lake is at the level it was 20 years ago,' she said. 'The lake level is going to go down lower than it has been.'
Barry Wirth, regional public affairs director for the Bureau of Reclamation, said Lake Powell is 87 feet from full. Wirth said it will continue to go down until at least March, when the lake will hit its lowest water level mark since May 29, 1973.
The last three years, the in flow of water at Lake Powell has totaled 18.5 million acre-feet of water, Wirth said. He said 8.23 million acre-feet of water has to be released every year from the Glen Canyon Dam which is why the water level is going down.
'When we hit the low point in March, we''ll have 12.5 million acre-feet of water still remaining,' he said.
Wirth said Lake Powell depends on the winter runoff and last year the runoff wasn''t sufficient to make the lake rise.
'The question we''re anxiously trying to sort out, and time will only help, is whether we''ll have that problem again,' Wirth said.
He said the state is not getting the storms it typically gets.
'An awful lot is riding on the historical storms we would see in March and April,' Wirth said. 'We really need them to come.'
He said the state needs a wet spring to make a difference; however, Wirth said because the soil in the upper basin is so dry, unless there is a substantial amount of moisture, most of the water won''t make it to the reservoirs.
'We need more than just one or two storms,' he said. 'We need a really stormy March and April period.'
Wirth said the area needs 150 percent of its normal snow pack to make the lake rise and currently the snow pack is only 58 percent of normal.
Obergh said because of the low water level, many people are under the impression there are several marina and ramp closures, but she said those rumors are only partially true.
'None of the marinas are closed,' Obergh said.
However, while none of the marinas are closed, there are some ramps that are closed.
'We are going to be facing some challenges,' she said. 'Some of are ramps are currently unavailable.'
The Wahweap state line ramp is closed and measures are in place to extend the ramp when the lake reaches its lowest level, Obergh said.
Ramps at Bullfrog and Halls Crossing marinas are being extended, Obergh said.
She said the main ramp at Hite Marina is closed because of the low water level, but a temporary dirt ramp is open. Public ramps at Halls Crossing, Bullfrog and Wahweap marinas are open, and the public ramp at Antelope Point is inaccessible because of the water level.
Obergh said Hite Marina, the northern most marina on the lake, is the only marina facing challenges because of the water level. She said the National Park Service is working on ways to improve Hite Marina before the summer.
'You may expect delays in launching this year because some of our ramps are closed and there is limited launch space,' she said.
There are also rumors about the fate of the Charles Hall and the John Atlantic Burr ferries.
According to the Associated Press, because of the low water level, the ferry ramps are unusable and the Utah Department of Transportation doesn''t want to pay the extra money to build new piers.
The ferries, that carry automobiles and passengers, run between Bullfrog and Halls Crossing marinas. Obergh said the ferries are still running and the National Park Service is looking at possible solutions so the ferry service doesn''t stop altogether.
'We are working with the park concessionaire and the state to make sure the ferry service continues,' she said.
Obergh said the ferries use the ramps at Bullfrog and Halls Crossing marinas; however, because some of the ramps are closed at those marinas, they need more space for people to launch their boats.
'We need that area for our visitors to launch boats,' she said. 'Our goal is to maintain the ferry service as well as provide as much launch space to our visitors.'
Joan Nevillf-Staveley, director of the Page/Lake Powell Chamber of Commerce, said the only people she thinks that will be affected if the ferry service closes are those who want to cross the lake from Halls Crossing to Bullfrog marinas to get their houseboat.
'It will add about 90 miles to their trip each way,' she said.
Nevillf-Staveley said people who don''t have their own slips (places to dock their houseboats) won''t have a problem launching a boat.
'The Wahweap main ramp is fine and they can keep moving the slips and the buoys out,' she said. 'There is no problem.'
However, she said moving the slips and buoys out only makes for a long walk up the ramp.
She said she doesn''t think the water level will make a difference with the number of visitors to Lake Powell. Nevillf-Staveley said between 2.5 and 3 million people visit Lake Powell each year.
With the low water level, Nevillf-Staveley said the face of the lake is changing -- in some way for the better.
'The beaches are just glorious,' she said. 'There are a lot more open hiking opportunities. It''s becoming more like it used to be.'