The water rushes between these Bountiful homes in 1983. ( Photo: Orland Call, Deseret News archives)
BOUNTIFUL, Utah — It’s not that there was no damage from Sunday’s heavy rainstorm in Bountiful. After all, nearly three inches of rain fell in a couple of hours. But Bountiful flood control measures taken since a disastrous mudslide hit the city in 1983 helped to avoid worse damage.
Bountiful City Engineer Lloyd Cheney says Bountiful City and Davis County have spent a lot of money in the years since installing retention basins in hillside neighborhoods as well as making other improvements.
“In addition, many of the channels of the creeks in town such as Millcreek and Barton Creek were actually lined with concrete instead of just having a natural stream bottom,” Cheney told KSL Newsradio.
The damage that did occur last night was near the ironically-named Dry Creek.
“This was on a drainage that didn’t have a concrete lining, so there was an accumulation of debris in a couple of places where that drainage crosses the road,” Cheney said.
Cheney says the city makes a significant effort to maintain Bountiful flood control channels.
“We spend a lot of money every year to maintain our storm drain system. We’re very pro-active about doing that,” he said.
The year 1983, or, the year of the sandbag river down State Street, was also a turning point for other communities needing flood control. Salt Lake City built the Little Dell Dam in the wake of the flooding that year. And Farmington invested in new retention basins and other measures after a landslide similar to Bountiful’s happened in their community.