It’s smelly, green and ugly.

No, we’re not talking about pea soup, your backyard compost pile or your younger brother’s first attempt at a spinach protein smoothie.

It’s the Sugar House Park pond.

After a winter worth blowing a raspberry over left behind a small snowpack, the waterbody and Parleys Creek, which feeds it, are struggling with low water levels. And low water levels means yucky water.

So, late last month, the Sugar House Park Authority and Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, which does maintenance at the green space, opted to drain the pond. Early this week, though, the authority said it was pumping water out of the basin, reducing water levels even more.

“Pumps at the pond will pull water downstream to eliminate standing water,” the authority wrote in an Instagram post, “and help clear up the conditions driving botulism.”

Avian botulism is a disease that birds pick up by eating toxic bacteria that grow in warm, shallow water. It can be lethal because it causes paralysis. In humans, toxic spores can get into open wounds and create similar effects.

At the Sugar House Park pond, some ducks have gotten sick, said Richard Nowak, director of the nonprofit Avian Sanctuary and Protection. On a visit in late July, he saw four dead ducks.

As of Thursday morning, there remained significant water in the pond, dozens of birds resting in it and patchy green scum. Runners and walkers were hit with a powerful rotting smell as they went by on the park’s road.

Despite the looks, county parks and recreation spokesperson Mimi Schneider said the basin is getting better.

“We are monitoring the pond closely and have already seen improvements in circulation,” she said in an email, “and overall water conditions.”

Under normal conditions, a gate at the pond’s outlet on its west side stays partially closed to keep the basin filled. When leaders decided to drain it, they opened that gate.

It’s the second time this year that the pond has been more of an eyesore than a cherished park feature. A dredging project knocked the basin out of commission from January through early April as crews removed sediment from its bottom.

The goals of that project were to increase the pond’s depth, improve water quality and reduce exposure to contamination.

Schneider did not give an estimate as to when parkgoers may see the basin filled up again but said the county did not expect it to reach full capacity while drought conditions persist.

As for the stink, it’s caused by stagnation and low water circulation, so Schneider expects the smells to get better as “conditions stabilize.”

— Tribune reporter Jordan Miller contributed to this story.