Rockport Reservoir Water Level
Rockport Reservoir is at 5,994.74 ft today (Oct 30), 42.26 ft below its 6,037 ft full pool, up 0.48 ft this week.
Utah · Weber River
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Water level history
About Rockport Reservoir
Rockport Reservoir is a reservoir on the Weber River in Utah, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 6037 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Rockport Reservoir's water level
Rockport Reservoir is held back by Wanship Dam, a zoned earthfill embankment on the Weber River about a mile and a half south of the town of Wanship in Summit County. The Bureau of Reclamation built it between 1954 and 1957 as part of the Weber Basin Project, and operation and maintenance of that project passed to the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District on 1 October 1968. The dam stands 175 feet high with a crest 2,015 feet long at elevation 6,055. Full pool is 6,037 feet, the invert of an uncontrolled concrete chute spillway rated at 10,800 cubic feet per second. Because nothing on that spillway can be closed, any reading above 6,037 means water is pouring over it into the Weber. At full pool the lake covers about 1,080 acres and holds 62,100 acre-feet, of which 60,860 are active storage. The top of dead storage sits at 5,930 feet.
The level follows the Weber River's snowmelt and the irrigation calendar downstream. Reclamation's environmental assessment for the reservoir says storage usually begins after the irrigation season starts and continues until the lake is full or flood control rules require passing inflow through, and that historically Rockport filled and spilled nearly every year. Later summer and fall releases then draw it back down. State fisheries work describes an annual swing of around 30 feet. The water belongs to a system that reaches from the Wasatch Mountains to the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake, serving Davis, Weber, Summit, Morgan and Box Elder counties and delivering on average about 166,000 acre-feet a year for irrigation and 50,000 for municipal and industrial use. Reclamation has also studied a pipeline to deliver up to 7,500 acre-feet a year from Rockport to the growing Park City and Snyderville Basin area.
The lake drowned a town. Rockport, first settled around 1860 and once home to roughly 200 people, was down to about 27 farming families when the government acquired the land in the early 1950s, and it was submerged by 1957. Summit County voters had opposed the project 357 to 47. Its cooperative store and schoolhouse were moved to Pioneer Village at Lagoon, and the old chapel now stands in the Rockport State Park campground. In September 2021, with the reservoir down to between a quarter and three tenths full, the town's foundations reappeared on the exposed flats and the park's main boat ramp closed. Two years later the record 2023 snowpack brought it back to capacity, and in mid June water ran over the spillway for the first time since 2017. Those two years mark the ends of the gauge's recent range: 5,977.55 feet in 2021 and 6,038.35 feet in 2023.
Rockport Reservoir — frequently asked
What is Rockport Reservoir's full pool elevation?
6,037 feet above sea level. That is the crest of Wanship Dam's spillway, an open concrete chute with no gates, so the lake cannot be held above it. At that elevation Rockport covers about 1,080 acres and holds 62,100 acre-feet. The dam's maximum design water surface is 6,049 feet, reached only if a large flood is running over the spillway, and the dam crest itself is at 6,055.
Why is Rockport Reservoir so low?
Rockport is an irrigation and municipal supply reservoir, so it is drawn down every summer and fall as water is released down the Weber River to users in the Weber Basin Project, then refilled by spring snowmelt. Fishery biologists describe a typical annual swing of about 30 feet. In a dry year the spring refill falls short, which is what happened in 2021, when the lake dropped below 30 percent of capacity by September.
What was the lowest level at Rockport Reservoir?
The lowest reading in the roughly six years of gauge data on this page is 5,977.55 feet, recorded during the 2021 drought, nearly 60 feet below full pool. News reports in September 2021 put the reservoir at 26 to 29 percent of capacity, low enough to expose the foundations of the flooded town and close the state park's main boat ramp. That is a recent low, not necessarily the lowest since the dam was built.
Does Rockport Reservoir fill and spill every year?
It used to come close. Reclamation wrote in its environmental assessment that the reservoir had historically filled and spilled nearly every year. Recent drought years broke that pattern. When the lake reached capacity in June 2023 after a record snowpack, it was the first time it had spilled since 2017, and releases to the Weber jumped from 100 to 900 cubic feet per second in a single day. The recent gauge high of 6,038.35 feet came that year.
When does Rockport Reservoir refill?
Refill comes in late spring and early summer with snowmelt on the upper Weber River. Weber Basin Water Conservancy District stages the filling around flood control, letting peak runoff pass so the river below stays at or under flood stage, then storing what follows. In 2023 the lake sat at 62 percent on 30 May, the lowest of the district's reservoirs, and was spilling by mid June.
Is there a town under Rockport Reservoir?
Yes. The pioneer town of Rockport, earlier called Crandall and Enoch City, sat on the Weber River where the lake is now. About 27 families remained when the land was acquired for Wanship Dam, and the town was flooded by 1957. Its cooperative store and schoolhouse are preserved at Lagoon's Pioneer Village and its chapel at Rockport State Park. When the reservoir drops far enough, as it did in 2021, old foundations show on the exposed lakebed.
What fish are in Rockport Reservoir?
Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources manages Rockport mainly for stocked rainbow trout, about 20,000 a year, which made up three quarters of the 2022 gillnet survey. Brown trout, yellow perch, kokanee salmon and smallmouth bass are also present. Because the 30 foot annual fluctuation leaves little vegetation or cover, about 250 artificial habitat structures were sunk in deep water near yellow perch spawning areas in May 2019.
Other lakes near Rockport Reservoir
- Starvation ReservoirUT
- Red Fleet ReservoirUT
- East Canyon ReservoirUT
- Lake PowellUT/AZ
- Echo ReservoirUT
- Pineview ReservoirUT
See current levels for all 10 Utah lakes and reservoirs →
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