Andy Neff, a contractor with JUB Engineers and a member of the Cache Water Restoration Project Team, said the story goes back to July 2009 when the landslide caused a breach in the canal.
After the disaster, Neff said the first step to reconstruction was to work with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to prepare an environmental impact statement, and the statement was finished in 2011 and construction has since begun. Rebuilding the canal is a very important project for the City of Logan.
Mark Nielson, public works director for the city of Logan, said the canal is used for irrigation in most of Cache Valley.
Neff said farmers with fields along the canal have been affected the worst by the broken canal, and because of the strain on the farmers for the last three years, the canal team hopes to have the project completed by spring. There are several other benefits to containing the canal in an underground pipe.
While many residents realize the canal must be fixed, some are upset about the way things have been going.
Nielson said citizens are mostly upset about the changes enclosing the canal will make in their yards.
Neff said the city wishes to appease the wishes of the residents as much as possible, but legal rights to the canal belong to the canal companies who built the sections of canal affected by the incident. Utah Statesman
