Provo officials say developer’s fence removal did not worsen impact of mudslide

PROVO — After a large mudslide last week in Provo that buried a car and damaged a church, city officials said on Friday that a developer’s actions did not make the situation worse.

At a news conference, Mayor Michelle Kaufusi said city officials did their best to anticipate the storm that caused the mudslide — and to respond to it.

“It’s so hard to navigate Mother Nature,” Kaufusi said. “When she turns on, we turn on, and we all go hands on deck. But sometimes it’s just not enough.”

What role did a development play?

Heavy rain on Aug. 27 fell right in the area where the Buckley Draw Fire had burned. That sent mud and debris pouring down the mountain, damaging a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Slate Canyon Drive. No homes were damaged due to the mudslide.

Across from the church is a new housing development being built. The builder, Lennar, had made some improvements to a nearby channel to handle debris before the storm hit, according to Provo Public Works Director Gordon Haight.

The project’s developer also removed some fencing in the area that was installed back in 2003 after a similar fire to deal with mudslides, city officials said. Still, they maintained, removing that fencing made basically no difference on the impact of the mudslide due to how much rain fell on the burn scar and how much debris flowed down the mountain. Nearly an inch of rain fell in the Buckley Draw Fire burn area in roughly 30 minutes.

“There’s no way that that fencing system would have stopped or been able to contain that much flow,” said Tim Thompson, principal geologist at GeoStrata Engineering & Geosciences, which was hired by the city of Provo.

Haight, the public works director, also emphasized that the debris channel itself was not disturbed by the developer in advance of the storm.

“It was left in pristine condition from the 2003 event and had not been reduced at all,” Haight said.

Preparing for future storms

To prepare for a similar storm like what happened last week, Provo city officials said the developer will now pay to extend the nearby debris channel by another 1200 feet — and build a new basin to collect debris.

“It would have been great to have built it last year or this year,” Haight acknowledged. “The cost of that is fairly substantial. It’s nice that we were able to get a developer to pay for all that cost, but because of that, it delayed the construction.”

Work on extending the debris channel will begin Sept. 15, Mayor Kaufusi said, and is expected to take about two months. She hopes not to see such heavy rain in the area until it’s done.

“Fingers crossed, Mother Nature plays on our side for just a minute,” Kaufusi said.

The mayor also expressed disappointment at criticism leveled at the city and the developer in the aftermath of the mudslide.

“I feel like people are looking to blame someone, and that’s fine. Blame me. I’m the mayor,” Kaufusi said. “I worked hard for this seat. I love my job. Blame me. But I’m struggling with the negativity out there of just who can we beat up over this. It’s just a tricky situation.”

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