An aging water knife -Lob has done its work in front of Holladay Mudslide

Holladay, Utah – a water knife from Salt Lake City did exactly what it should do, which led to a leak that caused a Holladay sludge and floods that had affected at least three houses overnight.

This happened in a neighborhood near 3100 east north of the old Mühlengolfplatz and in Knudsen corner.

Chloe Morroni, head of communication and public engagement management for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, said, part of the water meter, who is known as a sacrificial floor, left water as it is designed.

“And in this way it can prevent something worse from happening like a water break,” said Morroni. “So it did it. It is only – the topography here has certainly caused some problems.”

The water knife was on a hill over the houses. When the ground “sacrificed” according to Morroni, this led to the mud blide and floods. She said that the same design on a flat surface would probably not cause any problems.

Holladay -Wassermesser -Leck causes damage

The water knife leak in Holladay left a large clean-up project for the people who live at the foot of the hill.

Paul Holmes and his family spent time to shovel mud out of their entrance and to evaluate the damage in the basement in which he lives.

“It seemed an explosion of the water that came out there, and it was just starting down,” said Holmes.

According to Holmes, the subsequent mud blid and the floods sent two to three feet mud to his basement apartment.

“We can't even open the doors because the mud holds the doors closed, so we have to go through the rear windows,” said Holmes.

So he was able to save a computer from the deluge. Holmes said he had already spoken to a disaster restoration company that said that it would take a lot of work to fix the damage.

“It is a complete restoration (that's used) like – it is to tear up to the tunnels,” he said.

Fortunately, he said that neither he nor his dog Arthur was inside when the mud came in.

Piper Knight was a witness to the mud list and said everything started when she heard a loud sound.

“I look out of the garage and see it all how dirty water raves and just fall a few things,” said Knight.

Knight said her family hurried to get a car out of the garage before the water hit.

“It was just really chaotic.”

SLC offers Holladay Mudslide help

Morroni said that the work to repair the leak of the water measuring device and the damage left behind in Holladay is now beginning. While the damage was done in Holladay, Salt Lake City has the water knife.

First she said that the city would hire a contractor to support the slope. Then replace the water knife with a more modern “intelligent” version.

“The actual water knife itself is about 21 years old,” said Morroni. “We hate to see that. It's so unhappy. I am grateful that nobody was injured and the waterline itself was not broken so that it did not knock a whole series of houses out of the water.”

Jason Draper, chief engineer of Salt Lake City Public Utilities, said the city would rate the measuring device and “do what we can do not only to replace it, but to make it even stronger.”

“There we will use some support walls and perform geotechnical engineering to see what the best options are.”

Draper said the area had an aging infrastructure and said that new technologies such as smart meters could help.

“It is only a matter of time and prioritization and the attempt to find the best place to set our money with our limited resources and to replace them as much as possible.”

According to Morroni, Holmes and the other affected people have a way to look for help in paying repairs.

“The homeowners would contact Salt Lake City with risk management and they would claim a claim, and then this process would develop. And yes, the city is definitely reacting to it,” said Morroni.

State reacts to the latest problems with water lines

In an explanation, the Utah Division of Public Ulities informed KSL that it supports the replacement of the aging infrastructure through proactive financing.

“For the limited number of water companies in the jurisdiction of the public supply, the department supports an interest -financed capital reserves account to ensure that the companies can replace the aging infrastructure and react to emergencies,” said Chris Parker, the division director. “The Commission for the Public Service supported this approach in tariffs.”

Relatives: Lessons from the water break from water in Provo over the weekend