The pond at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City is filling up, turning the surrounding area of the park into a water retention basin. (Lindsay Aerts, KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — Vehicle traffic was temporarily closed to Sugar House Park on Sunday because of rising water levels in the duck pond.
Salt Lake County Parks And Recreation announced Sunday on Twitter that the park has reopened to vehicles.
In a statement, an agency representative said that water is intentionally redirected to retention basins like Sugar House Park.
“Retention basins are part of long-standing plans to mitigate and lessen the impacts of spring runoff. The situation at Sugar House Park will continue to be assessed.”
Still, before the county ordered vehicles out of the park, hundreds of volunteers were filling hundreds of sandbags north and east of the pond.
Before declaring the park closed to cars, Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation tweeted that the park “was working as intended for flood control.”
Parley’s Creek feeds the duck pond, which is actually a flood retention basin during the spring runoff season. As it rises, a spillway and hydraulically operated headgate control the water. They direct the water into a storm drain and, eventually, into the Jordan River.
Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation said they are keeping an eye on the rising water levels of the retention basin
While people on bicycles are still allowed in the park, they are urged to stay away from the water which the county described as cold and fast-moving.
We will update this story as more information becomes available.