Welcome to your
Wasatch Front Watershed

Welcome to the Keep it Pure homepage, the theme for our watershed protection program at Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities.

We hope that you find the information on this site useful in planning your responsible recreation and enjoyment of our local watershed.

Whether you come to picnic, hike, ski, snow-board, rock climb or to simply enjoy the beauty of our canyons, we ask that you remember this simple fact:

"What you see in the watershed today, you may drink tomorrow."

Did you know...

We hope that you find the information on this site useful in planning your responsible recreation and enjoyment of our local watershed.

• Your activity in the canyons can have an immediate impact on the quality of your drinking water.
• It can take less than 24 hours for the water you see in the stream to reach the drinking water faucets in the valley.
• Approximately 60 percent of our drinking water supply comes from our protected watershed canyons: City Creek, Parleys, Big Cottonwood, and Little Cottonwood.
• The Wasatch Front canyons are one of the most heavily used recreational forest in the nation, with millions of visitors annually.
• Prior to 1910, Salt Lake City had 100 to 350 cases and 10 to 20 fatalities from typhoid each year. Source watershed protection and drinking water treatment has nearly eliminated illness caused by drinking water contamination.
• Water from Emigration and Mill Creek is currently used for irrigation and not drinking water. That is why you can take your dogs in these canyons while restrictions apply to the others canyons.