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LOGAN — Workers are cleaning up the major runoff from 2023's spring flooding and implementing new changes to help contain sediment and prevent future flooding near the Logan River.
Crews Wednesday were clearing out the city's two sediment ponds for the first time, after last year's runoff helped fill them up.
"The amount that we needed to remove was estimated at about 10,000 cubic yards," said Russ Akina, Logan's director of Parks and Recreation.
The ponds were created as part of plans after flooding in 2011. Akina said the Natural Resources Conservation Service finished rerouting the Logan River in 2017 to handle runoff and its associated issues better.
"We're looking at a pretty healthy snowpack again this year. And so we're hopeful that it comes down in a manageable amount and doesn't inundate anybody in the process of moving from here to the summer," Akina said.
He said the sediment had been collecting near the river for the past several years, though most of it came with Utah's record runoff in 2023.
"The upper pond was essentially full. I mean, we could see the bottom of the basin because it was at the river surface," Akina said.
The estimated cost is about $200,000, but Akina said they'll come in under budget as a lot of the sediment is being sold and hauled off by contractors who want it for other projects. He said workers will have to re-plant some of the vegetation along the banks and come back to clear the ponds again in another five to seven years.
"We're glad to be able to get ahead of that before we get into that spring runoff period of time later this spring," Akina said.
Another project to help with flood control along a different part of the river is still in the planning stages.
