SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Public works crews have had a busy few days responding to large-scale water leaks across the Wasatch Front. The most recent cities impacted: Hollady, American fork, Centerville and Provo.
On Tuesday, three homes were damaged from a mudslide caused by a broken water meter owned by Salt Lake City. Crews spent Wednesday cleaning up the mess.
Jason Draper, Chief Engineer of SLC Public Utilities told ABC4, “They’re (the meters) subject to open air and corrosion and everything else and much closer to the surface than the water mains so their service life is much shorter.”
Had this happened in a flat area, Draper said the damage likely would have been secluded to the road. “Unfortunately, in this case, we’re on such a steep hill side that it drained out at the bottom and continued to drain out the bottom and saturate the hillside and eventually that water was enough to release that soil and down the hillside.”…