It takes about three hours to drive the 150 miles from American Fork to the shores of Bear Lake, if you don't stop for lunch or take time to pull off of U.S. 89 near the summit of Logan Canyon to admire the view.

I feel a special attachment to Bear Lake, having grown up in Montpelier with the lake in my backyard.

I'm not the only one. Many north Utah County residents make that trip each year. They go to lounge on the lake shore and play in the cold, clear water. Many will have watched with interest as a group calling itself Symbiotics has announced plans to turn part of the east shore into a hydroelectric powerhouse.

Symbiotics plans to turn Hook Canyon into a reservoir. The scheme works like this. The company would pump water uphill into the reservoir during the night, when the demand for power is low and the cost is cheap, and then return the water to Bear Lake during the day through a hydroelectric powerhouse, in the process generating 1,100 megawatts of peak-hour electricity daily.

While the promoters say the proposal is a great one -- "This clever engineering would result in an extremely low installed capital cost, allowing savings to Utah rate payers compared to market purchases or alternative peaking generation choices" -- not everyone is on board with the plan.

For one thing, when that giant straw sucks water uphill, it will reduce the level of the lake by as much as three inches each night. During the day, that water will be restored.

You can see the details of the plan at the Symbiotics Web site, ww.symbioticsenergy.com/projects/pumped/hook/hook.html. They make it sound like a dream proposal, but I find it disturbing.

Opponents of the plan say the fluctuating water level could prevent the lake from forming the ice sheet that covers it each winter. No only would that wreak havoc with the winter ice fishing (no more cisco!), but it could also wreak havoc with the lake's ecosystem -- and nobody knows what that could mean.

One thing it could mean is that moving all that water back and forth could stir up the sediments in the lake, which could rob Bear Lake of its famous blue hue.

Another concern is that the plan could threaten the four fishes found in Bear Lake and nowhere else -- the Bear Lake cisco, the Bear Lake sculpin, the Bear Lake white fish and the Bonneville white fish. (Not to mention the elusive Bear Lake Monster.)

The developers say the environmental concerns are unfounded, but it sounds like it might be akin to dealing with the June sucker times four. And that's been monumental.

In this case, however, the endemic fishes could be considered a blessing, not a curse, since they might bring the project to a standstill before it ever gets started.

I don't know how Utah County folks who love the lake feel about the project, but I called my brother, who still lives in Montpelier and is the Bear Lake County clerk, to find out how the county residents feel about it. The answer was no surprise.

"Local reaction is 100 percent negative," he told me. "There's not one vibe of anyone who thinks it is reasonable at all."

So far local groups weighing in against Hook Canyon include the Bear Lake County Commission, the Montpelier City Council and the Bear Lake Commission.

"It's the most universally opposed thing I've ever seen," Kerry said. "This one's just a no brainer."

But the promise of cheap electrical power continues to encourage Symbiotics, who are working through the seven- to 10-year process required to push a complicated plan like this through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

You can bet the residents of Bear Lake Valley, on both the Utah and Idaho sides, will be kicking all the way.

And many of us who don't live there but love the lake will join them.