Manager of Hydrology and Computer Modeling

Utah Division of Water Resources

Bio:

Craig Miller earned a BS in civil engineering from Brigham Young University in 1975 and a master’s degree in irrigation and agricultural engineering from Utah State University in 1979. Craig currently is the manager of the Hydrology and Computer Modeling section at the Utah Division of Water Resources where he has worked for 38 years in design, performing hydrologic studies and writing computer models. He recently retired from the Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel where his most recent assignment was as an instructor in Command and General Staff College and also has been a math adjunct at SLCC for 7 years. He has worked with many Great Salt Lake models and is most recently working with the integrated water resources model (IWRM) produced by CH2M.   

Title:  Current State of the Art in Modeling the Mineral Resources of Great Salt Lake and Planned Future Improvements

Wednesday, May 9th 2:25 PM

One of the future missions planned for the recently developed Great Salt Lake Integrated Water Resources Model is to help the Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands understand and manage the mineral resources of the lake. To accomplish that task, accounting for the total salt and its mineral components is necessary. Brine shrimpers also need to be able to predict harvests requiring a knowledge of the surface salinity of the south arm. Progress in improving our ability to accomplish these tasks will be discussed.

Title: Understanding How The Bear River Compact and Future Depletion Could Affect Great Salt Lake

Thursday, May 10th 3:25 PM

Abstract: The Bear River Compact was a complicated agreement forged over the course of several decades setting down rules for the use of Bear River water in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. It divides up future depletion of the Bear River waters to the tune of hundreds of thousands of acre feet between Utah, Idaho and Wyoming establishing rules and priorities. One issue that the Compact does not tackle is how those future depletions might affect the Great Salt Lake. Tools for evaluating those impacts have been developed in the last couple of decades and will be used to examine the amounts of depletion outlined in the latest Compact agreement.