Utah County leaders offer relief amid canyon bathroom closures mired in federal red tape

PLEASANT GROVE — Utah County leaders said Wednesday they were stepping in to pump and clear popular canyon bathrooms in Forest Service territory ahead of the July Fourth weekend as federal workers apparently remained mired in budget issues and red tape.

According to county officials, 12 of 28 restrooms in the Pleasant Grove Ranger District and three of 26 bathrooms in the Spanish Fork Ranger District were closed with full vaults at one point.

"They were already full," said Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner during an interview with KSL-TV. "That's hugely problematic — especially with the number of families that we have that recreate outdoors, especially this weekend."

She said it appeared to be an issue that extended well beyond Utah County.

"The Forest Service did not get their same budget that they needed to maintain the garbage and the bathrooms," Powers Gardner explained. "All over the national forest system, we have toilets that are filling up and closing because they haven't been pumped or maintained."

Powers Gardner said on June 23, county leaders met about the issue and reallocated money toward hiring a contractor to pump the toilets.

She said the contractor was hired the next day, and two bathrooms each at Tibble Fork Reservoir and Aspen Grove — two of the county's most popular outdoor areas — were pumped and cleared on Friday.

At the reservoir, that meant the bathroom facilities were operating at half capacity before being cleared.

The commissioner noted those were the only bathrooms the contractor could get to prior to the holiday and plans were in place to clear the remaining 11 restrooms sometime after the July Fourth weekend.

KSL did not immediately receive a response from the Forest Service.

Even in a historically "red" county, the issue seemed to rankle county leaders.

"I am a conservative, I did vote for Trump in this last election, and I do want us to have a lean, efficient government, but there's a point when you've gone too far — not pumping the bathrooms in common recreation areas is absolutely too far," Powers Gardner said.

"We have a federal government that tells us that they're more competent at managing our local lands than we are, and yet they're the ones who can't figure out how to pump a toilet, and we're the ones spending our tax dollars on a land that they get the money for the recreators on. I mean, we really need to work better. We need to be better partners. We need to work together, and we need to recognize that these are all our citizens that we're serving," she said.

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