A Kaysville water park that drained its entire lazy river into the sewer system last fall and allegedly flooded nearly a dozen nearby homes with raw sewage is being sued by the sewer district in an effort to both prove the park was at fault and recoup the money that the district paid homeowners to help fix damage.
The Central Davis Sewer District filed its lawsuit again Cherry Hill, Inc. on July 15 in 2nd District Court. The district has contended for months that Cherry Hill was responsible for the flooding, but the water park has yet to take responsibility, leaving many of the affected homes in a state of disrepair, with bare studs and floors.
While the sewer district had dolled out a combined $150,000 to the 11 households through its “No Fault/Good Neighbor Policy,” the money wasn’t enough to remediate all of the problems, homeowners told The Salt Lake Tribune in June.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tyler and Jen Erickson in their flood-damaged Farmington basement on Monday, May 20, 2024.
The sewer district has maintained that the water park discharged its entire lazy river — about 150,000 gallons — into the sewer system on Nov. 10, overwhelming it.
The lawsuit explains why, citing a conversation between sewer district staff and James Lloyd, a Cherry Hill operator, soon after the flooding. Lloyd, the lawsuit said, confirmed the park had emptied its lazy river around the same time the flooding occurred. The flooding stopped after the flow from Cherry Hill stopped, the lawsuit states.
Additionally, the sewer district’s attorneys wrote, Cherry Hill had admitted to its own insurance company that its had emptied its lazy river that day as part of “routine maintenance,” and that the discharge “resulted in sewage backups and flooding in 11 homes.”
The rate of discharge was more than 500 gallons per minute for approximately three hours, while the sewer lines can only handle approximately 380 gallons per minute, the lawsuit states.
The sewer district said it evaluated its pipe system and found no evidence of blockages or other issues that would have caused the flooding — pinning the blame, the lawsuit argues, on Cherry Hills’ “extraordinary” release of water.
The lawsuit accuses Cherry Hill of violations of the Utah Water Quality Act and argues the water park is responsible for the costs of damage caused by the violation, which they total at more than $170,000.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the water park had not filed a formal response to the lawsuit, and they did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for comment. A representative of the park had previously told The Tribune, “Cherry Hill does not comment on pending investigations and legal matters.”
Prior to this lawsuit, the sewer district had issued a notice of violation to the park, participated in a hearing to discuss the violations and potential consequences (which included stopping its services), outlined how the park should handle future water releases to avoid flooding, sent a letter threatening legal action and asked that the water park compensate homeowners, sewer district manager Jill Jones had said.
An attorney for the sewer district did not immediately respond to a Tribune request for comment about the recent litigation.
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