Water-quality assessment of the Great Salt Lake Basins, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming: environmental setting and study design

The Great Salt Lake Basins, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming is 1 of 51 study units in the United States where the status and trends of water quality, and the factors controlling water quality, are being studied by the National Water-Quality Assessment program of the U.S. Geological Survey. The 14,500-square-mile Great Salt Lake Basins study unit encompasses three major river systems that enter Great Salt Lake: the Bear, the Weber, and the Utah Lake/Jordan River systems. The environmental setting of the study unit includes natural and human-related factors that potentially influence the physical, chemical, and/or biological quality of the surface- and ground-water resources. Surface- and ground-water components of the planned assessment activities are designed to evaluate the sources of natural and human-related factors that affect the water quality in the Great Salt Lake Basins study unit.