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Water Quality
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Utah’s Watershed Management Program is focused on protecting and restoring the water quality of our streams, lakes and ground water resources by employing the following key elements: Stewardship, Monitoring and Assessment, Coordination and Watershed Planning.
Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL)
In Utah, clean water is one of our most valuable and limited resources. When pollutants impair the use of water a study is required to determine how to reduce them and restore water quality. This study is called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). A TMDL establishes the maximum amount of a pollutant allowed in the water while maintaining all of its designated beneficial uses. Utah is required by law to identify polluted waters and to develop TMDL’s to help address these problems.
The Clean Water Act requires every state to establish and maintain water quality standards designed to protect, restore, and preserve water quality in the state. These standards consist of narrative criteria that include designated uses, specific chemical and biological criteria necessary for protecting designated uses, and an anti-degradation policy. When a lake, river or stream fails to meet water quality standards, section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act directs the state to place the waterbody on a list of “impaired” waters referred to as the 303(d) list and prepare a plan to restore water quality called a Total Maximum Daily Load study (TMDL).
In-Progress
TMDL Water Quality Studies
Contact Jodi Gardberg for additional information and staff contacts.
Draft TMDLs
Available for Public Comment
Watershed Plans
- Duchesne River Watershed Restoration Plan (10 MB)
- Escalante River Water Quality Management Plan (854 KB)
- Lower San Juan Coordinated Resource Management Plan (8 MB)
- Salt Lake Countywide Water Quality Stewardship Plan
- San Pitch River Water Quality Management Plan (1 MB)
- Strawberry River Watershed Restoration Plan (9 MB)
- Paria River Watershed Water Quality Management Plan (96 MB)
- Upper Sevier River Watershed Management Plan (23 MB)
- Utah Lake Water Quality Plan
- Virgin River Watershed Management Plan (30 MB)
- Wallsburg Coordinated Resource Management Plan (8 MB)
Other Water Quality Studies
- Ashley Creek (2 MB)
- Big East Lake—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (2 MB)
- Bridger, China, Lyman and Marsh Lakes Assessment (376 KB)
- Jordan River
- Lower Gooseberry Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (549 KB)
- Manning Meadows Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (536 KB)
- Mill Hollow Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (305 KB)
- Navajo Lake—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (253 KB)
- Nine Mile Reservoir (5 MB)
- Utah’s Priority Lakes and Reservoirs 1999
- Piute Reservoir Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (346 KB)
- Recapture Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (5 MB)
- San Juan Watershed Monitoring Program
- Tony Grove Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (285 KB)
- Utah Lake
- Yankee Meadow Reservoir—Limnological Assessment of Water Quality (359 KB)
Additional Information
- Bear River Watershed Information System
- EPA’s National TMDL Website
- Prioritization of Utah’s 303(d) List for TMDL Development and Alternative Approaches (2 MB)
- Utah’s Water Quality Standards
- Water Quality Board TMDL Policy (70 KB)
