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Controversial Canal Rebuild in Cache County Has "Many Tentacles"

Residents living near Lundstrom Park in Logan concerned with a proposed plan to pipe a nearby canal will meet with members of the Logan City and Cache County Councils. About a dozen citizens and members from both councils requested the meeting with engineers to discuss the canal rebuild design. They say the original piping plans included the use of a concrete box culvert to move water through the canal. Now, engineers say they will request a permit from the Logan Planning Commission for a plan that calls for the water to flow through an underground pipe.

Since the canal break three years ago, some Logan residents have been upset with the rebuilding project and process.  A recent grassroots group called FLOW was organized to protest the plan to pipe the canal water. And Logan resident Lucille Watkins says citizens have been angered by the usage of emergency money and the disputed land rights to the canal bed.

"What this has caused is just a lot of anger for a lot of folks and they all have different anger, whether the canal is going to be closed or whether they will get less water rather than more, and they're going to be spending 3 times as much money for it. There's so many tentacles to this. It's just unfortunate that our elected officials did not do the right thing in the beginning."

But Cache County Executive Lynn Lemon says moving forward with the proposed canal design is critical for all those who rely on the canal water for irrigation, including farmers who have had only limited water supplies since the break.

"What they would like is they'd like it the way that it is right now but that's not possible. Again, there's going to be an effort to try to keep some water above ground not within the box culvert or the pipe but certainly we can't provide the amount of water above ground that's currently there, so I think we'll just continue with construction that construction will moved forward as it's planned and try to resolve any issues as we move along."

The 45-minute meeting begins at 5:00 Tuesday evening and will be held in the Cache County Council Chambers at 199 Main Street in Logan.

Mackinzie Hamilton started her career in 2009 as a reporter for 610 AM KVNU and staff writer for Cache Valley Daily.com before joining UPR in 2011. A freshman at Utah State University, she is majoring in Journalism and communications with a minor in vocal performance.