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Courtney Orton and Tom Callan reportingMultiple basements in a Draper neighborhood are under water this afternoon.
City and county officials say the flooding could be due to a clogged drain system under a nearby canal, or it could be that there's just an excess of groundwater that is causing water to seep into basements.
All but three of the homes in a cul-de-sac near 700 East and 12600 South have at least 3 inches of water in them, and residents are continually pumping more out.
Some of them have hired professional disaster cleanup companies to come and pump out the water. But until officials determine what's causing the water to fill up basements, all the homeowners can do is keep pumping.
"All I know is I'm sick of pumping water," homeowner Newell Rollins said.
Kerri Davis' basement has been flooded for more than a week. "We [were] here until about midnight last night. Then at about midnight we kinda threw our hands in the air and said, 'It won't stop,'" she said.
She will now have to tear out the carpets, the floor boards and the Sheetrock.
Homeowner Candy Johnson's basement has been flooded for three weeks. "No one wants to take ownership of the problem. Our hands are kind of tied, and we're just really frustrated and don't really know where to go from here," she said.
There's been some confusion as to who is responsible for what's happening. The Draper city manager tells us the sub-drain system that could be clogged is supposed to be maintained by the home owners association of a different neighborhood.
"It's just a high water table area. There's a whole land-drain system the homeowners association is suppose to be maintaining. Those are things we're going to have our crews look at to see if there are any clogs in the land-drain system," said city manager Layne Long.
The Willow Springs Creek is maintained by Salt Lake County, and the county has been holding back some of that water.
Groundwater levels have gone down, but nothing seems to be stopping that water from filling up the basements.
Right now, city and county officials are working very hard to find out what is causing water to fill up the basements, and all home owners can do is keep pumping it out.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
