Flooding at Sugar House Park means the pond is functioning as planned

Ahead of the peak of spring runoff, officials closed the park to cars last weekend due to controlled releases from the Mountain and Little Dell reservoirs.

Water released from upstream reservoirs to handle spring snowmelt runoff has temporarily transformed Sugar House Park into Sugar House Pond. Type of.

The park serves as catch basin — or temporary holding space — for Parleys Creek flood defenses. As Salt Lake City’s public utilities release water from the Mountain and Little Dell reservoirs to make room for increased runoff when the weather warms, Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation closed the park for April 22, according to a news release Cars. They expected the water to flood the banks of the existing pond and cover parts of the road that winds through the park – and that’s exactly what happened.

Brown water flooded the road on the west side of the park on Wednesday night as onlookers gathered for photos and ducks roamed their expanded watering hole. Officials predicted the runoff could cause the pond to rise as much as 4 feet. Patrick Leary, the county’s assistant parks director, said Wednesday’s water levels were higher than they have been this season.

[Read more: As flood risk looms, inside the scientific guesswork that keeps Utah water managers up at night]

Leary expected the park to be closed to cars all weekend, and officials would check with Salt Lake City’s public utilities Monday to determine when it can reopen to vehicles. Public utilities said in a release they expect higher power flows over the weekend and early next week due to warmer weather.

Those increased flows will be felt at Sugar House Park, Parleys Historic Nature Park and Hidden Hollow, according to public utilities, who added city crews will be ready to deploy sandbags should flooding become a problem. Laura Briefer, director of public utilities, said in the release that Salt Lake City’s infrastructure “will have the capacity to accommodate the projected power flows.”

Sugar House Park is still open to pedestrians, but Kade Moncur, director of the Salt Lake County Flood Control Department, warned visitors to be careful, saying the Parleys Creek runoff will move “quickly” and “cold” and the standing water at Add Park “will be deeper than expected and can be very dangerous.”

Salt Lake City applied for a permit to build a holding pond at Sugar House Park in 1982, public utilities spokeswoman Chloe Morroni said. In addition to this park, other detention basins in the county include the Creekside area of ​​Big Cottonwood Regional Park, Ben Franklin/Scott Avenue Park, and Wheeler Historic Farm Park. All are “part of longstanding plans to mitigate and reduce the impact of spring runoff.” The county tweeted.

As the weather warms and flooding concerns mount, county officials are looking for volunteers to fill sandbags on Friday and Saturday in Midvale at the “Sandbagging Shed” at 604 W. 6960 South. The event will take place on Friday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.