Salt Lake City Water System

Water Quality Snapshot: Salt Lake City Water System

Salt Lake City Water System is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 381,174 residents in Salt Lake City, Utah (Salt Lake County) through 86,503 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 222 total violations for this system , of which 3 (1%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 214 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2018.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is BHC-GAMMA, recorded in 9 violations (MR). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 4 PFAS compounds were detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 18.2 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Utah, EPA tracks 1,068 public water systems serving 3,870,776 people, with 169,784 cumulative violations and 10,671 health-based violations on record. About 98% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 159 violations. Statewide, 91 of 129 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (70.5%).

Salt Lake City Water System's 222 violations sit above the Utah average.

All figures above are sourced directly from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 public data releases and are updated as EPA publishes new reporting cycles.