STOCKTON, Utah — Homeowners in Soldier Canyon in Tooele County are eagerly waiting for county construction to get started. Residents want flood prevention projects to be ready as soon as possible before spring flooding hits.
TheJacob City Fire burned over 4,000 acres in the area near Stockton last summer.
“It was scary when that fire started coming around the corner,” said Lonnie Bates, who lives in Soldier Canyon. “It was huge. I didn’t see any way possible for them to come and put that out the way that they did.”
In September, one home was evacuated and several properties were damaged after flooding near the burn scar.
“There was an awful lot of anxiety around. There was a lot of uncertainty. We knew not just the fire, we also knew the floods would follow,” said Bates.
Now, residents and visitors of Soldier Canyon are bracing themselves for whatever comes next.
“I think we’re going to see a whole lot more than what we saw in ’83. We got a lot more snowpack than what we had in ’83,” said Tooele resident Chad Vonhatten. “It’s just unreal what mother nature can do.”
Bates put up a concrete barrier within the last year.
“It does give us a level of security. We feel like we’ve done everything we can to prepare for high water,” he said. “We go up in the canyon just about every day watching for it. It will come. There’s a lot of snow up there.”
Back in the fall, federal and state agencies approved funding to create berms and other diversion mechanisms to prevent spring flooding.
According to Tooele County’s most recent spring runoff situation report, Soldier Canyon is monitored weekly but as of right now, there’s “no current concerns.” Areas like Willow Canyon, Davenport Canyon, and Settlement Canyon are monitored daily.
“If everything gets too hot too fast, and if we have a warm rainstorm that comes through like it did in ’83, then it’s a disaster,” said Bates.
