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MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE, Weber County -- Cleanup continues in Plain City from the river that flooded and levee that broke apart Tuesday. Now many are asking the question, who is watching to see if a levee in Utah might break?

The answer may surprise you: In all likelihood, no one is.

There is no state agency that regulates levees and canals in Utah, even though Utah Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, tried to introduce a bill to regulate levees and canals.

Regulation could prevent disasters

This regulation may have found weaknesses before the levee broke, possibly preventing the breach in Plain City from happening Tuesday -- and from happening again.

"I think anytime you have flows of water what would bring damage to personal property and homes, or to life, the public has a right to know," Davis said.

Last year, Davis introduced a bill that would've allowed Utah to inspect canals and levees. His idea came after three people were killed when a canal broke in Logan in 2009. That bill didn't pass because, Davis thinks, it might've assigned blame to disasters.

"It's protecting private property from responsibility, really, to the general public," he said.

Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson said comparisons in Plain City to the Logan Canal — in terms who can and should make sure the banks are sound — are not practical.

"We have literally thousands of miles of rivers and streams in this state," Gibson said. "It is not like a canal where there is some expectation that it is all man-managed, where there is a certain level of water that is there for a certain purpose that is released at a certain time. "

In contrast, the Weber River is a natural flow of water with volume dependent on the amount of runoff.

"There's no practical way to guarantee against flooding," Gibson said. "Where possible, it makes sense to make sure that bank is as secure as possible."

Several farm fields and homes in Plain City were flooded from what has turned the main breach of the Weber River into a 100-foot wide gap.

The Utah Farm Bureau says most of the canals and levees in the state are in rural areas. It agrees canals and levees should be taken care of, but as development gets closer to them, the Bureau doesn't want to see farmers and canal companies get in trouble if they flood.

"Canal companies have to take ownership and responsibility and take proper maintenance of their canals, but in cases where there is development encroaching upon those canal banks, then that becomes a partnership liability, or it should be," said Sterling Brown with the Bureau.

Davis says he plans on introducing his bill at a later time. He feels this issue is just too important to ignore.

Cleanup in Plain City continues

With flood threats on hold to neighboring homes, attention has now turned to the ruptured banks of the Weber River, where heavy equipment operators are hastily trying to shore up a gaping breach.

For now the rain has abated in western Weber County and the water levels where the banks failed Wednesday have retreated enough that repairs are under way, said Gibson.

Gibson and the others are hopeful their "Band-Aid" efforts will plug any additional water that could cascade into the yards and pastures of homes in this community, where a few houses perched on mounded hills look like they are fortified with moats.

Photos

"We're feeling like now we're in a bit of a lull that will give us time to get in there and do a temporary fix" on a repair project likely to stretch out weeks, he said.

The quick work is being done in anticipation of another storm expected to hit Utah Thursday that, while not as bad as Monday's downpour — could bring another quarter inch of rain.

It is water that Gibson, emergency crews and impacted residents do not want.

"We're praying it soon gets a little warmer and lot drier," Gibson said.

River being reinforced, monitored

The bank of the river gave way at a sharp V curve about five river miles from where the Weber dumps into the Great Salt Lake. It is an area that has been built up — or reinforced — over the years because of 30-year-cyclical problems with significant flooding in the 1950s, the early 1980s and now in 2011.

"It's not really an engineered levee," Gibson said, "but after one of these floods there have been efforts to build up the bank a little bit."

The result is a raised section of the bank that, while more immune to routine flooding — has more dramatic consequences if it does give way.

"If it does break, it brings an awful lot of pressure with it," he said.

Gibson said he believes a pooling of debris downstream from the bank's breach backed up the high-flowing Weber River, steadily causing an escalation of pressure on the soil.

"We were in there with this big equipment trying to get the debris to move along when we realized this bank had given way in this spot upstream," Gibson said. "It was a huge movement of material — it was like feeling the earth move."

Weber County Emergency Services Director Lance Peterson said the next few days may bring more sandbagging for a handful of homes, but if the water continues to recede from the ruptured banks, he's hopeful workers will be able to plug the gap.

"We're really hoping the river will come down," he said.

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Story written by Amy Joi O'Donoghue and Alex Cabrero.