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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.
 

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Approximately 60 percent of our drinking water supply comes from our protected watershed canyons: City Creek, Parleys, Big Cottonwood, and Little Cottonwood.
 

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The Wasatch Front canyons are some of the most heavily used recreational forest in the nation, with millions of visitors annually, more then Yellowstone National Park!
 

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Prior to 1910, Salt Lake City had 100 to 350 cases of typhoid fever with 10 to 20 fatalities each year. Source watershed protection and drinking water treatment has nearly eliminated illness caused by drinking water contamination.
 

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Currently Emigration Canyon below Burrs Fork and Mill Creek Canyon are not fully regulated protected watersheds. This is why dogs are currently allowed in these canyons.