GREAT SALT LAKE — In anticipation of heavy spring runoff, an elaborate system of dikes, ditches and ponds in Salt Lake and Davis counties will be deliberately breached, allowing water to flow through thousands of acres of prime waterfowl land along the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

The man-made alterations to dikes and other water control features will be done to make sure the Goggin Drain — which is a canal that takes the water off the Jordan River surplus canal — doesn't get overwhelmed from high flows brought on by an overwhelmingly plentiful year for snowpack and ultimately result in more substantial and disastrous flooding.

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Farther north, those same concerns about flooding have officials considering when to breach the dike on the west shores of Centerville Pond, so that it doesn't become inundated and flood east side areas, including an industrial park, when the runoff hits.

If flows exceed 3,000 feet per cubic second at the Goggin — where it is now running at about 2,000 cfs — it could compromise a dam, overwhelming any of the systems in place that direct water into the Great Salt Lake.

The Goggin, one of those systems, conveys water from the surplus canal to the Great Salt Lake, bypassing farm fields, several thousand acres of duck club property and the Farmington Bay waterfowl management area.

If the dam fails, the water would all at once rush through the duck clubs, rather than directing it out west through the Goggin Drain.

The dike at the duck clubs — such as North Point and Rudy — as well as Farmington Bay, can only handle flows at a certain rate, said Jeff Richards, president of the Utah Waterfowl Association.

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Both he and Rich Hansen, head of the Farmington Bay Waterfowl management area, said it is better to make the cuts or breaches now than to deal with uncontrolled amounts of water later. That includes what needs to be done at Centerville Pond.

"If we leave it, it will have more than one breach in the dike," Hansen said. "With the sheer volume of water coming, there is a lack of ability to get rid of that much water."

The dike impoundments are shored up with boards, which can be removed to facilitate water moving through the waterfowl areas as flows increase, Richards said.

"We are not there yet," he said. "We have not pulled boards as of this point."

The tricky part of making the breaches will involve the timing on when to make the repairs.

Richards said the fixes need to be made to preserve the ideal amount of water in the wetlands in the dry months to come and also in time to discourage the growth of phragmites, the "common reed" native to Utah that is a greedy grower crowding out other plants.

"If we have ponds that just wet and not held up to a certain level, we will have the phragmite germinate."

High flows are also being watched closely in Centerville because of a situation that if not managed properly could prove costly when rapid runoff hits.

Randy Richards, Centerville's public works director, said the streams that flow through the city and into the Centerville Pond will have to pass through a culvert not sufficient enough to handle an anticipated flow of 1,300 cubic feet per second.

Rocky Mountain Power built the dike impounding the pond in 1987 to keep the Great Salt Lake from moving any further east and taking out power lines.

By breaching it on the west side, the water will flow to the Great Salt Lake, instead backing up to the east and flood an industrial park, a power substation or even Legacy Highway, Hansen said.

Hansen, who works for the state Division of Wildlife Resources, said there have been talks with the utility company about putting in a larger culvert in the future so the pond's dike will not have to be breached during high flow years.

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