Snow Lakes

Snow Lakes are a system of freshwater reservoir lakes made by Upper Snow Lake and Lower Snow Lake, approximately a mile long. They are located on the eastern slope of The Enchantments, in Chelan County, Washington. The Snow Lakes are one of the most heavily used destination in the Forest Service wildernesses in Oregon and Washington. Self-issued Alpine Lakes Wilderness permits are required for transit within the Snow Lakes area.

Archaeological surveying in the area of the Snow Lakes shows evidence that the occupation of indigenous groups dated to at least 12,000 years before the present era. The lakes are within the traditional territory of the Wenatchi People, one of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and within the ceded lands of the Yakama Nation.

Euro-Americans arrived in the 1800s, primarily fur trappers. The Wenatchi people were relocated following the Treaty of 1855 to the Yakama and Colville Reservations while the local population became comprised then of Chinese immigrant prospecting as gold miners and Euro-American settlers working in the timber and agriculture industries. Urban Grassi, a Catholic Priest was the first to use irrigation in the Valley.

The Icicle Irrigation District applied in 1930 for the right to appropriate water from the Snow Lakes for seasonal irrigation purposes. The State Supervisor of Hydraulics had issued Permit Number 828 in January 1927 for the appropriation of surrounding lakes. The irrigation district also sought permission to raise the lake levels because of inadequate summer flows for irrigation. The Department of Public Lands approved this request in an order that allowed the irrigation district to inundate lakeshores on the lake. The dams on Upper and Lower Snow Lakes as well as neighboring Nada Lake were completed in 1940 and later expanded in 1941 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation authorizing 25 cfs, 1,000 acre-feet per year for irrigation of 7,000 acres of lands. The Snow Lakes also have water right certificate for 16,000 acre-feet per year to supplement the water supply for the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery and holding ponds.

The Snow Lakes system is owned and operated by United States Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1939, the Bureau of Reclamation acquired an easement on portions adjacent to Snow and Nada Lakes from the IPID. That easement was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service in 1949 which owns lands adjacent to the shoreline of Upper and Lower Snow Lakes, approximately 1,084 acres including the Upper Snow, Lower Snow, and Nada Lakes.

The Icicle Irrigation District has existing water rights, easements, and access agreements with the United States Forest Service that allow the lakes to be used for storage and release of water. These agreements include the right to conduct maintenance activities within the areas of the lake.

Upper Snow Lake is contained by a masonry dam constructed in the late 1930s out of cement and locally derived rock and located at the natural outlet towards Lower Snow Lake. The crest elevation is 5,428 feet. The dam functions as an overflow spillway for the Lake with a maximum height of approximately 10 feet and a crest length of 119 feet.

Water outflows from the Upper Snow Lake to Nada Lake through a 36-inch penstock. Operation of flow through the penstock is controlled by 3 valves. The valve furthest upstream is a 30-inch gate valve, which is primarily used to cut off flow when not in use. The second is an 8-inch valve that provides a bypass around the gate valve to equalize pressure prior to the operation of the gate valve. The third valve is a 20-inch butterfly valve located at the end of the penstock and is used for throttling to control the flow from Upper Snow Lake to Nada Lake.