Contact: Tom Ward, (801) 483-6705

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Salt Lake City, UT, September 23, 2003 – Mayor Rocky Anderson and the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities today unveiled a new "Keep It Pure" public awareness campaign to educate local residents and visitors how to preserve our pristine water supply by acting responsibly in our Wasatch Front watershed canyons.

Catching rain and snow, several watershed canyons along the Wasatch Front are an important part of our drinking water supply and are designated "protected watershed areas." The protected canyons are City Creek, Parleys, Big Cottonwood, and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Water from those canyon streams reaches as many as 405,000 people within 24 hours.

"With our current drought situation, so much of the public's attention has been drawn to the issue of water conservation," said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. "Our remarkable success saving water demonstrates the public's willingness to take action to protect our resources, if people are given the right information about how to act responsibly. Protecting the quality of our water is just as vital as conserving the quantity we have to use. Our actions now to protect the purity and safety of our canyon streams will have lasting benefits for many generations."

The "Keep It Pure" theme for this initiative, emblazoned on the campaign's logo, will be a focal point for new canyon signs, newspaper advertisements, bumper stickers, and other program elements. As part of this comprehensive public education program, a new drinking water supply watershed protection overview will be provided to local school districts as an addendum to their current water science curriculum.

The U.S. Forest Service is partnering with the City on implementation of the watershed education campaign. In addition to the education effort, the City and Forest Service are installing new toilets at trailhead areas to reduce pollution from public recreation sources. Federal funding contributions for these programs were supported by Senator Bennett and Representative Matheson with the "Wasatch Canyons Water Quality Initiative" included in the 2003 Appropriations Bill. More than $290,000 was set aside by the federal government to supplement Salt Lake City's $280,000 share of the campaign's costs.

This new "Keep It Pure" campaign is necessary for two important reasons. First, our Wasatch Front canyons are some of the most heavily used recreational forests in the nation, with millions of visitors annually. Second, many visitors to these canyons, including local residents, do not understand that their activity in the canyons can have an immediate impact on the quality and safety of their drinking water.

For generations, Wasatch Front residents and visitors have enjoyed recreating in these pristine canyons. But few residents realize that the same water they may be tempted to play in is also the water we drink every day. "The scarcity of this water resource, coupled with ever-increasing recreational use and pressure on these canyons, makes personal stewardship of the watershed an important practice for every person in the canyons," said Tom Tidwell, Forest Supervisor of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

As a result, it's important for residents to follow a few simple guidelines to help protect our water quality:

1. Obey all posted watershed regulations.
2. Plan ahead and use existing restrooms whenever possible.
3. Stay out of the lakes, rivers, and streams.
4. Exercise pets in other designated areas. Pets are not allowed in the watershed.

The new "Keep It Pure" campaign is designed to help raise the awareness of water quality issues with the public and to motivate each canyon visitor to act responsibly to help protect our watershed canyons.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Tom Ward
Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities
801.483.6705
http://www.KeepItPure.com
Thomas.Ward@slcgov.com