Water still flowing down Tooele street

Water continues to run down a residential street in Tooele as city contractors attempt to replace an old leaky pipe that went out of service over the weekend — and city officials expect 700 South to stay wet for the next several days.

Water was intentionally diverted onto 700 South, the city's secondary water-flow route, on Saturday after city engineers found the 20-year-old corrugated steel pipe had a rust-induced leak Friday afternoon, Mayor Charlie Roberts said.

The 48-inch pipe was installed with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds in 1984 after a season of heavy runoff resulted in flooding throughout Utah. The pipe has been directing spring runoff from Settlement Canyon since.

But Friday afternoon, a resident along the pipe's path reported finding sink holes in his horse pasture, and when city crews checked it out, "the more we dug, we found out that the steel pipe had rusted out on the bottom over 20 years," Roberts said.

He said the pipe was designed to last about 20 years and that the leak was to be expected.

When the water began flowing Saturday, residents along 700 South had to contend with a river where once there was a street. But city engineer Paul Hansen told the Deseret Morning News that evening that water was staying below the curb and that the homes were not at risk.

Then came Monday's storm.

The short-lived thunderstorm that hit northern Utah on Monday morning was not an equal-opportunity drencher, leaving only about .30 inches of water in Salt Lake City but hammering Tooele with a reported 3.71 inches of rain.

Roberts said that rain complicated the situation on 700 South, but most of the city's problems were not related to the diverted runoff at all.

Part of the reason, he said, is the "incredible turnout" of volunteers who put up sandbags along the street and protected the homes.

"Without them, I don't know what we would have done," he said.

But in other parts of the city, the flash floods filled hundreds of basements with as much as 30 inches of water.

Roberts said the intentional flooding was well-timed. Catching the leak during slower runoff meant the city could put the pipe out of commission and go to plan B before the heavy rains, which certainly would have pushed the leaky pipe beyond its breaking point.