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Utah's Wasatch Front area comprises about 4,000 square miles in the north-central part of the State. I n 1980, the area had a population of more than 1.1 million, or about 77 percent of Utah's total population. It contains several large cities, including Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Provo, and is commonly called Utah's urban corridor. Most of the water supply for the Wasatch Front area comes from streams that originate in the Wasatch Range and nearby Uinta Mountains; however, ground water has played an important role in the economic growth of the area. The principal source of ground water is the unconsolidated fill (sedimentary deposits) in the valleys of the Wasatch Front area northern Juab, Utah, Goshen, and Salt Lake Valleys; the East Shore area (a valley area east of the Great Salt Lake), and the Bear River Bay area. Maximum saturated thickness of the fill in the principal ground-water reservoirs in these valleys exceeds 6,000 feet, and the estimated volume of water that can be withdrawn from just the upper 100 feet of the saturated fill is about 8 million acre-feet. In most places the water is fresh, containing less than 1,000 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids; in much of the Bear River Bay area and most of Goshen Valley (and locally in the other valleys), the water is slightly to moderately saline, with 1,000 to 10,000 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids. The principal ground-water reservoirs receive recharge at an annual rate that is estimated to exceed 1 million acre-feet chiefly as seepage from consolidated rocks in the adjacent mountains from canals, ditches, and irrigated land, directly from precipitation, and from streams. Discharge during 1980 (which was chiefly from springs, seepage to streams, evapotranspiration, and withdrawal by wells) was estimated to be about 1.1 million acre-feet. Withdrawal from wells, which began within a few years after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and had increased to about 320,000 acre-feet during 1979. Additional withdrawals from wells may cause water levels to decline, possibly leading to such problems as conflicts among water-right owners, increased pumping costs, land subsidence, and deterioration of ground-water quality. Some of these problems cannot be avoided if the principal ground-water reservoirs are to be fully used; however, management practices such as artificial ground-water recharge in intensivelypumped areas may help to alleviate those problems. SIGNIFICANCE Ground Water in Perspective During 1940-80 the Wasatch Front area of northcentral Utah experienced tremendous growth in population and related business and industrial development. The population more than tripled. (See figure 1.) Many of the fields that once produced sugar beets, alfalfa, and other irrigated crops have become sites of new schools, shopping centers, and residential areas. Orchards and groves of native scrub oak on the terraces (benches) overlooking the Wasatch Front valleys have given way to "view property" housing developments. Even at this writing, urbanization of this once predominantly rural agricultural area continues, and it is expected to continue into the 21st century. Water needed to support the large influx of people to the Wasatch Front area has come chiefly from streams that originate in the Wasatch Range and nearby Uinta Mountains. Ground water, however, has and will continue to play an important role in helping to meet the increasing water needs for public supply, industry, and other uses. The area has a tremendous supply of ground water more than the contents of Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake combined. Competition for this ground water will increase as the available surface-water supply becomes fully used. Ground water has certain advantages over surface water for some uses; this is especially true for public supply where dependability and quality of the supply are extremely important. Ground water is a more dependable water source than surface water during droughts wells generally continue to produce water after streams have ceased flowing. Ground water generally is available where needed, whereas surface water may have to be conveyed long distances from the source to the area of use. Ground water is less subject to contamination and pollution than is surface water it is much more difficult to introduce contaminants (intentionally or accidentally) into a deep groundwater source than into a stream or surface reservoir.

Ground water in Utah's densely populated Wasatch Front area - The challenge and the choices