Swimming on the green: Southgate flooded by broken pipe

A pipeline break floods Southgate Golf Course, St. George, Utah, Aug. 6, 2014 | Photo by Aspen Stoddard, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Southgate Golf Course flooded Wednesday afternoon after a water pipeline broke near 600 West and Tonaquint Drive.

The St. George Communications Center received a report at 1:57 p.m. of a significant amount of water running across the road to the west of Southgate Golf Course, located at 1975 S. Tonaquint Dr. in St. George. The water moved across the street and streamed down the fairway to the fourth hole, St. George Police Officer Jace Hutchings said.

This was considered a major pipeline break in comparison to breaks that have occurred in the past, Hutchings said. Traffic backed up for about 20-25 minutes as vehicles slowed to drive through the water.

The City of St. George Water Services Department arrived on scene and shut the water off. The shutoff didn’t affect any residential houses because the section of pipe was isolated, Water Service Manager Kirk Klotz said. If the break was caused by a split in the pipe, repair time will take approximately four hours, he said.

Water pipeline breaks and floods Southgate Golf Course located at 1975 S. Tonaquint Dr. in St. George, Utah, Aug. 6, 2014 | Photo by Aspen Stoddard, St. George News
A pipeline break floods Southgate Golf Course, St. George, Utah, Aug. 6, 2014 | Photo by Aspen Stoddard, St. George News

“We haven’t recently had a broken pipe at this location,” Klotz said. “At the beginning of the summer, we had a slow leak here but that was it. The hardest part of fixing a broken pipeline is just getting the pipeline exposed.”

There will be minor cleanup needed at the golf course, primarily to replace some bark used for landscaping that was washed out by the water, Southgate Golf Course Director Colby Cowan said.

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