Reservoir drains again

Kim Dean
Managing Editor
 
Turner Reservoir, a popular fishing spot known to hold record-breaking 8- and 9-pound bass and a nice variety of other fish, drained in early June of 2018, according to a U.S. Forest Service news release. The 4-acre reservoir fed by Turner Creek is located 7 miles northwest of Osage. The release cited “infrastructure failure” as the cause of the drainage. 
 “We did a temporary fix while we were obtaining the funding from the regional office for a permanent repair, then the temporary fix that was in place failed,” said Aaron Voos, a Forest Service public affairs specialist.
In addition to the drainage, he said, two spots in the road leading to the reservoir had been washed out.
“The road is passable now,” Voos said. Any road might have the same issue, he said, because of rainfall amounts this year.
“We have obtained the funds to permanently repair the reservoir, and are now working on obtaining funds to do work to the road. Both of those will probably happen next spring or summer,” he said.
After the initial drainage, a July 19, 2018, News Letter Journal article reported that Forest Service staff were “working to determine the appropriate actions necessary to repair the reservoir and return the area to a fishing site enjoyed by the public.” 
The release also said that the Forest Service would work closely with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to assess future options because the fish in the reservoir perished after the drainage. Ryan Nupen, a forest engineer with the Medicine Bow/Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland, said in 2018 that if enough funding were obtained, the standard design of the reservoir might change.
“We’d like to simplify it, and it seems like the water and the soils there are a little too corrosive for steel, so if we can maybe take that out of the design with some hardened spillway – a concrete spillway something of that nature,” Nupen said in the 2018 article.
Game and Fish also weighed in on the reservoir’s initial drainage and the state agency’s role in the reservoir’s future. The state agency would restock the pond once it was fixed, according to Paul Mavrakis, the regional fishery supervisor for Game and Fish.
Voos said that it will take a good bit of money and engineering to get the reservoir repaired, but he said “the plan is to get it back up and going”.
Local angler Bob Williams said that losing Turner Reservoir, one of the few bigger fishing holes in Weston County, is a “pretty big deal,” and he is waiting for the fishing hole’s return.