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SALT LAKE CITY — It's been four years since water last flowed through Liberty Park's Seven Canyons Fountain and that the decision to permanently close is now official.
Now they want the public's feedback as to what to do with it in the future.
The fountain, constructed in 1993, was intended to be an interactive work of art to recreate the seven canyons and waterways in the valley: City Creek, Red Butte, Emigration, Parleys, Millcreek, as well as the Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. It was a legacy donation from Obert C. Tanner, the founder of O.C. Tanner.
It's one of the larger art pieces in one of the city's more popular parks and served a couple of purposes. First, it taught about the county's major watersheds. Second, it was a splash pad especially popular on hot summer days.
But in 2017, the city turned off the water following an inspection report by the Salt Lake County Department of Health and growing maintenance issues. City officials said they would need an ultraviolet sanitation system to safely remove any waterborne pathogens, as well as other key issues such as fixing a possible drowning hazard for children.
Signs about the closure still stand next to the large fountain directing visitors to other water play areas in the park.
The city, two years ago, approved a little more than $850,000 in funding for the fountain's restoration that could solve issues brought up by the health department too. Of that money, $20,000 went toward a feasibility study to look into how the fountain could be restored.
Through that study, city officials determined that there was no way they could restore the fountain using recirculating water because it would double the cost of the project and make the artwork mostly unrecognizable based on the original artists' intentions.
Then, citing the city's water conservation commitments, the only remaining options left the running water — the original function of the art piece — off the table. City officials said it was "hard to justify" switching the fountain to a flow-through system that would use millions of gallons of water annually, especially as the city and the state deal with ongoing drought conditions.
After taking into account these factors and going through community feedback, the city circled two options for residents to ponder: refurbish the fountain and convert it into a dry, interactive art piece at the park or decommission the fountain and find ways to collect funding to replace it with something different.
Kristin Riker, director of Salt Lake City Public Lands, said in a statement last week that closing the fountain "saddened us all."
"We feel these are the best options in terms of fiscal and environmental responsibility," she added.
The city last week launched a survey to figure out the fate of the structure with those options on the table. The survey asks about the two options and how an individual feels about other factors, including the importance of staying within the allotted budget or educating people about watersheds. It closes on May 21.
A final decision on the fountain is expected not long after the survey wraps up.
