A Park City-hosted discussion about a waterway appeared to be running dry on Tuesday, until there was a torrent of controversy toward the end of the event about the name of the creek.
Waterworks officials engaged a small crowd at the Park City Library about the future of the waterway widely known as Poison Creek. The moniker has been used for decades, but Park City officials have recently been attempting a rebranding to Empire Creek. The event on Tuesday was billed as covering the future of Empire Creek even as materials announcing the gathering acknowledged the waterway is often called “Poison Creek.”
Officials detailed issues like contaminants in certain municipal water sources, including the mining-era Judge Tunnel in Empire Canyon. The tunnel is located near the waterway. For decades, until 2013, water from the tunnel sometimes overflowed and went into the creek, according to City Hall. The municipal government halted using water from the Judge Tunnel for drinking water in 2013 out of concern for the contaminants. Officials say water with the contaminants from the Judge Tunnel has gone into Empire Creek since then.
The issues are part of the legacy of Park City’s historic silver-mining industry, which drove the economy for decades. Silver mining in Park City collapsed toward the middle of the 20th century and skiing eventually replaced mining as the economic driver. The mining, though, left significant environmental issues in the water and soils that Park City leaders have needed to address for years.
There was limited provocativeness during the event on Tuesday until the name began to be debated toward the end of the discussion. The name “Poison Creek” carries a stigma about the water that Park City leaders appear to be attempting to undo after generations of Parkites have grown accustomed to the name.
Several people in the crowd of approximately 15 confronted Public Utilities Director Clint McAffee and other staffers in attendance about the name of the creek. The crowd members noted the name “Empire Creek” was not used until recently and questioned whether Park City is attempting to hide the history of the waterway. McAffee pushed back against that claim about the recent use of the name “Empire Creek,” saying “nobody just made it up.” There was also talk about the name “Poison Creek” possibly signaling to people the water is not safe to drink.
The dispute about the name prompted arguments between crowd members, leading to several disjointed minutes with people talking over each other as they debated the “Poison Creek” and “Empire Creek” monikers.
One of the crowd members, Old Town resident Sherie Harding, said in an interview afterward she prefers using the name “Poison Creek” for its “historical value.”
“I don’t want to ignore our mining history, or make it go away, for better or worse,” Harding said, noting she attended based on an interest in water quality issues rather than the name of the creek.
She said the name “Poison Creek” shows “respect for our mining history, legacy.” Harding also said the waterway is not labeled “Empire Creek” on topographical maps.
It is not clear how successful City Hall has been to date as it attempts to persuade Parkites to use the name “Empire Creek.” There has been just scattered interest in the recent talks about the future of the waterway, and the creek is generally not part of the day-to-day public discourse
There will likely be greater attention in coming weeks amid the concerns about the possibility of flooding along the waterway, though.
The attempt to rebrand the waterway from “Poison Creek” to “Empire Creek” follows years after Park City was generally successful in altering the way people refer to another piece of the community’s history. The McPolin Farm along the S.R. 224 entryway, acquired by City Hall in a conservation arrangement in the 1990s, long was called by another name — the “Osguthorpe Barn” or the “Osguthorpe Farm” — before there was a concerted effort to use the historic name of McPolin.