The dam that holds back Farmington Pond is safe and will hold up under all but the severest earthquake or flood, according to an engineering evaluation done for the Davis County Public Works Department.
Public Works Director Sid Smith said Monday the 40-year-old rock dam was found to be stable, with a few cavities that were filled with grout, and the county is applying for certification of the structure with the state dam safety division.Questions about the dam's structural soundness were raised by neighbors and adjacent landowners as part of an overall review they asked of the current and future uses of Farmington Pond.
The pond and dam are jointly owned by the county and Farmington City, but the state is also involved, through its dam safety requirements and the Fish and Game Department, which stocks the pond with trout.
The county uses the pond as a debris- and flood-control basin. The pond is one of the most heavily fished bodies of water in the state, according to the Fish and Game Department, far outstripping even Strawberry Reservoir.
As part of the facility's review, the county contracted for a $34,000 study of the dam's structural integrity.
Smith reported the engineers found it to be in good shape, predicting it would hold up under a 7.0 earthquake on the Richter scale and a 100-year flood.
The dam is "borderline" for a severe, or 9.0 earthquake, and would probably wash out in a worst-case flood scenario, Smith said.
But if the county were hit by a 9.0 earthquake or a worst-case scenario flood, losing the dam would be almost insignificant compared to the rest of the damage, Smith said.
"If we were hit by that big of a quake, losing the dam and the small amount of water it would release would be the least of our worries," Smith said.