Officials have shut down a portion of a Utah scenic byway and are limiting access to Panguitch Lake after they discovered cracks in the upper portion of Panguitch Lake Dam on Monday.
According to the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, the dam has “sustained damage resulting in transverse cracking on the upper portion.” Transverse cracking is caused by structural stress and can cause a dam to lose strength and, in the worst-case scenario, fail, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dam pocket guide.
The sheriff’s office reported that the damage is “not severe enough to warrant immediate evacuations.”
However, as a “precaution,” authorities have closed State Route 143 below the dam and will limit access to Panguitch Lake. Also known as the Brian Head-Panguitch Lake Scenic Byway, State Route 143 connects Parowan and Panguitch.
The highway remains open above Panguitch Lake, which is about 260 miles south of Salt Lake City and about 18 miles southwest of the city of Panguitch.
The county sheriff, the city of Panguitch, local emergency management officials and the West Panguitch Irrigation Company are “monitoring the conditions,” and “if conditions worsen, emergency notification will be made through all available resources.”
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