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Salt Lake City Requests Community Input on Two Options for the Future of Seven Canyons Fountain in Liberty Park

SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City is requesting community feedback on two potential options for the future of the Seven Canyons Fountain in Liberty Park, which was drained in  2017 due to health and safety concerns. 

The interactive art structure, which was donated to the residents of Salt Lake City in 1993 as a legacy gift from Mr. O.C. Tanner, served as one of the most well-known features of Liberty Park in Salt Lake City for nearly 30 years. The fountain was designed to portray the seven canyons of the Salt Lake Valley, as well as the respective rivers and streams that make up the valley’s watershed. 

In 2017, Salt Lake City leadership made the difficult decision to turn the water off at the fountain. An April 2017 citation issued by the Salt Lake County Department of Health, combined with other concerning maintenance issues at the fountain, made it clear that it was in the public’s best interest to shut off the water.

The Salt Lake City Council approved funding in 2019 for restoring the fountain and resolving compliance issues with Salt Lake County Health Department Codes. Utilizing a portion of these funds, a consultant-led feasibility study was conducted to identify solutions for restoration.

This study led to several potential options for restoring the fountain. The options vary in cost, impact on artwork, and overall water use after restoration. 

The City has determined that restoring the fountain as an interactive feature with recirculating water is not a viable option. The reasons for this decision include:

  • Doing so will cost more than double the current project budget.
  • In order to update the fountain to meet Salt Lake County Health Department regulations for interactive, recirculating water features, the original artwork would have to be significantly altered, rendering the artwork largely unrecognizable to the detriment of the artists’ vision and integrity of the aesthetics.
  • The City’s commitment to water conservation makes it hard to justify the lower-cost option of converting the fountain to a flow-through system, which would have less impact on the artwork but would use millions more gallons of water per year. Recently, low snowpack and stream flows prompted Mayor Mendenhall to issue a Stage 1 Advisory of the City’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan.

After considering each option proposed in the study, as well as Salt Lake City’s commitment to water conservation, City leaders have prioritized two potential options on which to request community feedback:

  1. Refurbish the artwork and permanently convert it into a dry, interactive art feature.
  2. Decommission the artwork and pursue funding to replace the artwork with something different (Separate funding would have to be requested because the current project funds are not approved for creating new artwork).

“Closing the fountain saddened us all. We feel these are the best options in terms of fiscal and environmental responsibility,” said Kristin Riker, Director of Salt Lake City Public Lands.

The City has set up a webpage where community members can learn more about the current status of the Seven Canyons Fountain and provide feedback on the proposals through an online survey: https://www.slc.gov/parks/parks-division/scf/

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