Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District Director Mike Luers says the treatment plant has served as the helipad for the University of Utah’s medical helicopter operations since 2009.
“Contrary to popular believe we do not have a helicopter. We do have a large concrete pad that is not used. So, at that time, we signed a lease with the University of Utah to provide space for their helicopter, and space for them to move a trailer in that they use as a base of operation. And since 2009, it's been the base operation for the Snyderville Basin-Park City area to serve the community, including responding to ski accidents and avalanche situations.”
For those who can see or hear the helicopter, chances are there’s some kind of an emergency happening. Luers says during the construction of the new Silver Creek treatment plant, they learned it was a good thing to have emergency technicians on site.
“You know, it's great for us to have paramedics on site, knock on wood, we haven't had any injuries of our personnel, but during the construction of the Silver Creek project, we did have a contractor’s employee, pretty badly injured, and we had paramedics on site, and it served a great purpose. I think the fact that we have an air-med operation in the Park City and Snyderville Basin area is a tremendous benefit in that we can get pretty fast response to severe injuries and, and issues like that.”
This medical helicopter he says has a huge service area, covering most of northeastern Utah.
