Letter: One reason Salt Lake City flooded in 1983 was the numerous rivers and creeks buried under streets
Authored by Jim Pissot
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
An article highlighting the fact that Salt Lake City’s buried creeks were one of the reasons for the notorious 1983 floods. The Three Creeks Confluence is a good step forward!
Regarding the recent article about flooding in Salt Lake City in 1983: This reporting might have noted that one of the reasons Salt Lake City’s streets became rivers was because so many rivers were buried under those streets.
A short distance from our home, just east of Liberty Park, ditch-like traces of one of those streams could be seen on their way to Liberty Park. When the floods came, that stream rose from its small culvert confinement and flowed down 1300 South. Other streams farther south had been reduced to narrow canals, with homes and other developments crowding what should have been floodplains.
Utah’s farming pioneers treasured these streams. But later generations channeled, constrained, buried and forgot them. I recall some time later reading that O. C. Tanner had been recognized for — among other things — providing the city with a number of beautiful fountains. How ironic! Imagine a Salt Lake Valley with free-flowing and adequately protected waterways flowing from the mountains to the Jordan River.
