Background The twenty-mile Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) causeway across the Great Salt Lake separates the lake into a North Arm and South Arm of different salinities. Between 2011 and 2013, UPRR applied for and received a federal Clean Water Act Section 404 permit from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) to close two…

Routine water-quality data collection helps the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) take appropriate actions to protect Great Salt Lake’s (GSL) beneficial uses. DWQ’s Great Salt Lake monitoring program is designed to detect potential changes in water quality conditions, support the development of numeric and narrative water quality standards, guide discharge permitting decisions, and assess beneficial…

General Permitting Program The Division of Water Quality (DWQ) requires and issues Utah Pollution Discharge Elimination System (UPDES) permits to all entities that discharge pollutants from a point source to waters of the state, including discharges of domestic and industrial wastewater along with more diffuse sources like stormwater. For domestic and industrial dischargers, these permits…

Read about water quality standards in regards to the Great Salt Lake.

Read about the Great Salt Lake Water Quality Strategy.

Learn about Water Quality’s Great Salt Lake strategy, standards, permitting, and monitoring.