PROVO — Utah County leaders agreed Tuesday night that the county needs to determine how to best prepare for flooding like Washington County experienced in January.

Utah County Engineer Clyde Naylor told the Utah County Council of Governments — which is made up of the three county commissioners and the county's mayors — that while there is no way to predict a flood, Utah County is not in very good shape to deal with one.

"I really believe that we're quite unprepared in Utah County," Naylor said. "If you look at the watersheds all the way from Santaquin to Lehi, the only thing that's happened really since 1985 is a little bit of channel cleaning and after-fire preparation."

Naylor said this year's additional snowpack is a concern, but unpredictable rainstorms can cause severe problems as well.

"When it comes to flooding, the bigger potential is rainstorm events," he said. "Now whether that will happen or not, nobody can predict. Last summer we had major rainstorm events in the Cedar Fort area, which caused major flooding in Cedar Fort and the White Hills subdivision. If we were to have a major flood on some of our watersheds with the snowmelt, we could have major flooding similar to '83. It's really that simple."

Naylor warned leaders that what happened in St. George earlier this year could happen in Utah County as well.

"If you don't believe that we have a St. George-type-of-event potential in Utah County, look at the places that flooded in 1983," he said. "Now there are probably 300-400 homes on the flood plains that existed in 1983. There is a very real potential."

Mapleton Mayor Dean Allan agreed with Naylor's assessment.

"If you look at the alluvial fans along the Wasatch Front, and you look at the housing that has been developed at the bottom of those draws, from Lehi to Santaquin, you can see where we could have major problems if we had a heavy rainstorm," Allan said. "An event certainly can occur and probably will."

Naylor said the county replaced 13 bridges and 120 miles of road due to flood activity in 1983 and should look at prevention over repair.

"Do we want to think about spending $30 or $40 million to recover from a flood, or do we want to start talking about building $3 million or $4 million a year and get something prepared?" he asked.

The mayors and commissioner in attendance voted unanimously to direct an effort to create a flood preparedness plan.

"I don't think we can always lean on the federal government to bail us out of these messes," said Spanish Fork mayor Dale Barney. "I've been really concerned about the lack of maintenance on all of the channels. I think it's something that we really ought to look at and plan for the future."

County Commissioner Larry Ellertson said the flood plan could eventually involve a tax, but it is too preliminary to say right now.

"There's some more to be done before we have a specific proposal for you on doing that," he said. "And we may be needing some help from you and your technical people in putting that (proposal) together."

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