| OCR Text |
Show Water problems plague angry Clearfield residents taking the position that the bulk of the water is coming from the canal. City owned property has not been damaged yet, but we're putting pressure on the canal company to get it taken care of right away." Mr. Baird said he realized the monetary loss to the residents is high. "I know of one man who has put $4,500 otu of his own pocket to fight the problem," he said. Robert Allred was called home O CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CLEARFIELD "It sounded just like someone was slurping a big slurpee. I turned around and there was this huge hole." That is how Mrs. Lois Carper explained the creation of a 4x4 foot wide, 10 foot deep sink hole that appeared in her backyard on Friday. Mrs. Carper said she had just come out into the yard with her ri:V 5vt I J -It ' h"V - " " ' ' S's t ? !. """"-iSL dog, when she heard the startling noises and saw the grass disappearing disappear-ing from view. "I just don't know what I'm going to do," said the elderly woman, "I really don't have the money to fix the problem." The problem, as Mrs. Carper and her neighbors on Fern Drive see it, is too much ground water created by a leaking canal that runs behind their homes. While the rest of the county is suffering from a drought, some residents on Fern Drive are pumping as many as 1400 gallons of water a day from their basements. A section of the eight-mile-long Davis and Weber County Canal passes directly behind the homes and many residents have had serious se-rious water damage as a result of flooding they are blaming on the decaying canal. Verna Nichol, sister and neighbor neigh-bor of Mrs. Carper, said workers had installed a second sump pump at her home, but not before her entire en-tire basement was flooded and damaged. . Frustrated residents said they are tired of the "run around" they are getting from the canal owners. "They've tried to tell us that this water is due to a high water table. " How can you' have a high water table in the middle of a drought year?" asked Mrs. Nichol incredulously. incredu-lously. "One of them told me they were here first, so we just had to learn to live with it," said Mrs. Carper. Clearfield City Manager Wally Baird has visited the neighborhood to survey the damage. "The city is .,,.,.v.ia.J..um.-,-.. -J:i-...v .v., , i , i in I,, iii r 1 wrr 1 t'- ""v" "sr 7 i .. ..... S'. .J "x - . PHOTO BY ROGER TUTTLE j1 '7:r":r",iii r 1 - J Lois Carper was surprised Friday morning by a "slurping sound" and the appearance of a 10-foot-deep sink hole in her backyard. Residents on Clearfield's Fern Street are waging war against soggy yards and flooded basements they are blaming on a leaky canal. (Insert) Mrs. Carper surveys the flow of water coming from her yard. Residents are pumping up to 1400 gallons of water a day out of their yards and basements. Water problems CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 O from work on Monday morning to help his wife try to rescue the rest of their basement from the water that was pouring in. "I thought the one sump pump I installed would take care of it, but now the rest of the basement is wet," he said as he surveyed the damage. The Allreds have lived in their home since 1975 and have never had water in their basement until this year. "I know it's the canal," said Mr. Allred. "There are roots growing out of it breaking up the cement and when it's empty you can see chunks of cement missing that are big enough to fit a car through." Joe Dawson, president of the board for the canal company, claims the company is doing everything every-thing possible to maintain the canal. can-al. "The canal has been there for many, many years and the company com-pany has done the best it could to maintain it. I know the residents feel we're the problem and I'm not the least bit pleased that they have water in their basements. I can see their point. I guess anybody would assume the problem is created by the canal," he said. Mr. Dawson said they want to do everything they can to solve the problem, but the canal will be full of water until October when the irrigation irriga-tion water in the canal is no longer needed. He added company management man-agement will meet soon to determine deter-mine how much, if any, liability they have in the situation. Until that time residents of Fern Street will continue to have mud from their basements and try to raise the nearly $2,500 each, needed to have water control methods installed in their homes. "Maybe I can float a loan from my sister," said Mrs. Carper, pardoning pardon-ing the pun. - - V Y 4i'9 V A .rf ? s v5. PHOTO BY ROGER TUTTLE The eight-mile-long Davis Weber Canal passes directly behind be-hind the damaged homes on Fern Street. Residents say the canal is in such poor repair due to roots growing through the cement and "large chunks" missing, that the water from the leaking canal is flooding their homes. This hastily penned message hanging on the wall of the Robert Allred home seemed appropriate as Mrs. Allred waded out of her water-soaked basement. |
