OCR Text |
Show Salt Lake City Watershed Management Plan ' 99 increase of 29 percent. With the exception of Parleys Canyon, this is the highest average daily traffic in the plan area. The average daily traffic from 1987 to 1996 is reported in Appendix G. Developed campsites are maintained by the Forest Service at Tanner Flat and Albion Basin. Tanner Flat has been closed due to an environmental remediation project. Use at these sites has varied from year to year. The two campgrounds have a capacity of 465 persons. While weekend and holiday use is high, weekend and weekday use combined falls below capacity. WATER QUALITY BACKGROUND Salt Lake City obtains a significant portion of its culinary water supply from canyon streams originating in the Wasatch Mountains. These canyons include City Creek, Emigration, Parleys, Mill Creek, Big Cottonwood, and Little Cottonwood. Water from City Creek, Parleys, Big Cottonwood, and Little Cottonwood is treated in treatment plants and distributed to residents of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County. Reliance on these water sources is such that the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities must closely monitor and regulate any activities that may threaten water quality. Though recreation activity in these canyons has increased, water from these canyons has historically been of high quality. Recent mean annual total coliform counts have raised concerns that canyon water quality may be deteriorating. DATA CONTAMINANT INDICATORS, SOURCES, AND FATE Existing water quality data provides a baseline for monitoring watershed use effects. This section presents a discussion of each of the selected key contaminant indicators already included in the City's existing database. To define the significance of the data it is important to understand the potential sources of the indicator, and the transport and fate of tiie indicator in the mountain stream environment. COLIFORM BACTERIA Measurements of total coliform have been used as an indicator of contamination of waters for many years. Coliform have been used as an indication of contamination Page 11 |