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Hidden Water - Salt Lake County Water Drainages
  • Drainage: big cottonwood (and)
  • Subject: canyon
(50 results)



Display: 100

    • Argenta dam site


    • BC017
    • Argenta dam site

    • Water developers once called for a dam and reservoir at Argenta. Storing 12,000 acre-feet of water and covering 143 acres, the lake would have stretched back 1.25 miles to Cardiff Fork. The plan was voted down in a bond election after the Utah...

    • Canyon; dam; reservoir
    • August low flow


    • BC034
    • August low flow

    • In late summer a combination of diversions and seasonal low flow can practically dry up streams.

    • Canyon
    • Brighton's Hotel, Silver Lake, Cottonwood Canyon


    • BC1000
    • Brighton's Hotel, Silver Lake, Cottonwood Canyon

    • View of the hotel looking east across Silver Lake at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake County, Utah.

    • Brighton Hotel (Brighton, Utah) Big Cottonwood Canyon (Utah) Utah, Salt Lake, Brighton Big Cottonwood Canyon (Salt Lake County, Utah) Brighton (Utah)
    • Broads Fork


    • BC024
    • Broads Fork

    • Broads Fork empties into Big Cottonwood Creek approximately .75 miles west of Mill B South Fork. It's been called Broughts Fork, Brocks Fork, Borck Fork, Broads Gulch and Bordsfork.

    • Canyon
    • Broads Fork basin


    • BC023
    • Broads Fork basin

    • Broads Fork on the south side of Big Cottonwood Canyon provided timber for the Mill B mine.

    • Canyon
    • Butler Fork


    • BC016
    • Butler Fork

    • Two small creeks converge to form Butler Fork on the north side of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Hikers often spot moose in the well watered drainage.

    • Canyon
    • Cardiff Fork debris


    • BC012
    • Cardiff Fork debris

    • In autumn when streamflows diminish, tributary creeks can appear placid. Yet remnant debris signals the ferocity of falling water in late spring and early summer.

    • Canyon
    • Cardiff Fork in autumn


    • BC013
    • Cardiff Fork in autumn

    • Like many tributary drainages in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Cardiff Fork once was the location of feverish prospecting for precious metals.

    • Canyon
    • Circuit breakers


    • BC031
    • Circuit breakers

    • Stairs Station is a substation. Circuit breakers control power moving down or up canyon.

    • Canyon
    • Coagulation


    • BC040
    • Coagulation

    • Coagulation is a positive-negative ion process. Plant managers add chemicals with a positive charge. Negatively charged bacteria and dirt join with the chemical to form a floc molecule. A series of motors turns the water so that the floc...

    • Canyon
    • Cross-country skiers


    • BC014
    • Cross-country skiers

    • Cross-country skiers work their way up Mill D North Fork to Dog Lake. At the top of the drainage, they can drop into Big Water drainage and ski down Mill Creek Canyon.

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Doughnut Falls


    • BC011
    • Doughnut Falls

    • Doughnut Falls in the Cardiff Fork drainage is a popular hiking destination.

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Exiting clean water


    • BC045
    • Exiting clean water

    • When water leaves the plant, turbidity is less than required by the Environmental Protection Agency.

    • Canyon
    • Filter cleaning


    • BC046
    • Filter cleaning

    • Typically, filters are cleaned every 72 hours, the flushed water deposited into receiving basins. That backwashed water is cleaned and routed back to the treatment starting point. The plant doesn't waste any water.

    • Canyon
    • Filtration


    • BC042
    • Filtration

    • After the water passes through a baffle wall separating sedimentation and filtration, it enters the last stage. Anything left in the water is filtered out when it is forced down through two sets of filters, one of anthracite coal and the other...

    • Canyon
    • Fisher


    • BC009
    • Fisher

    • Reynolds Flat, where the streambed gradient almost flattens, is a popular place for fishers.

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Forebay at Storm Mt.


    • BC025
    • Forebay at Storm Mt.

    • Rocky Mountain Power uses its non-consumptive water right at Storm Mountain to divert most of the water out of Big Cottonwood Creek. The forebay stores water and helps generate 156 pounds of static pressure for the Stairs Station about one mile...

    • Canyon; dam; diversion; reservoir
    • Granite forebay


    • BC032
    • Granite forebay

    • Once it exits the Stairs Station power plant, water moves through the tailrace into the Granite forebay.

    • Canyon; dam; diversion; headgate
    • Granite Plant


    • BC035
    • Granite Plant

    • The generator at Granite Plant is larger than the one at Stairs Station and can generate 1.3 megawatts at full load. It was built in 1896 to power the trolley car system in Salt Lake City. A wooden flume used to bring water from Stairs to...

    • Canyon; architecture
    • Granite Plant outlet


    • BC036
    • Granite Plant outlet

    • Once diverted Big Cottonwood Creek water leaves Rocky Mountain Power's Granite Plant, it enters the water treatment plant at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The plant is one of three run by the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. ...

    • Canyon; architecture
    • High water


    • BC047
    • High water

    • The Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant only can take in 60 cfs. During periods of high flow most of Big Cottonwood Creek water is routed past the south intake into the streambed.

    • Canyon
    • Intake and outflow


    • BC043
    • Intake and outflow

    • The pipe gallery lies underneath filtration. Pipes painted light gray carry not completely treated, raw water going into filtration. Blue pipes carry completely treated water into the Salt Lake City system.

    • Canyon; pipe
    • Lake Blanche


    • BC018
    • Lake Blanche

    • Lake Blanche is one of the Three Sisters Lakes with Florence and Lillian in Mill B South Fork.

    • Canyon; lake; recreational use; reservoir
    • Lake Blanche dam


    • BC019
    • Lake Blanche dam

    • Water needs in Salt Lake Valley were growing quickly at the turn of the 20th century. Dams were constructed in 1908 at the north and west ends of Lake Blanche to store more water for late summer drawdown. The lake is no longer used to store...

    • Canyon; dam; lake; reservoir
    • Lake Florence


    • BC020
    • Lake Florence

    • Lake Florence is one of the Three Sisters Lakes with Blanche and Lillian in Mill B South Fork. Water needs in Salt Lake Valley were growing quickly at the turn of the 20th century. A dam was constructed in 1908 at the west end of Lake Florence to...

    • Canyon; dam; lake; recreational use; reservoir
    • Lake Lillian


    • BC022
    • Lake Lillian

    • Lake Lillian is one of the Three Sisters Lakes with Blanche and Florence in Mill B South Fork. Water needs in Salt Lake Valley were growing quickly at the turn of the 20th century. A dam was constructed in 1908 at the west end of Lake Lillian to...

    • Canyon; dam; lake; recreational use; reservoir
    • Lake Lillian inlet


    • BC021
    • Lake Lillian inlet

    • The outlet from Lake Florence becomes the inlet to Lake Lillian, a drop of approximately 100 feet between the two lakes.

    • Canyon
    • Lake Mary


    • BC003
    • Lake Mary

    • Lake Mary is one of several lakes in the Wasatch Range that has been dammed to collect and hold more water for downstream use.

    • Canyon; dam; lake; recreational use; reservoir
    • Mixing in chemicals


    • BC039
    • Mixing in chemicals

    • The plant is a conventional water treatment facility with four stages: disinfection, coagulation, sedimentation and filtration. A flash mixer adds hypochloride as a disinfectant. Often, hydrated lime is added, too, to boost alkalinity, since...

    • Canyon
    • Mt. Millicent


    • BC001
    • Mt. Millicent

    • Mt. Millicent is part of the Brighton Bowl at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Late spring and early summer snowmelt provides approximately 50% of the flow in Wasatch Front streams. The rest comes from residual melting, rain and groundwater that...

    • Canyon
    • Penstock


    • BC028
    • Penstock

    • A four-foot diameter penstock 3000-feet long brings water from the Storm Mountain forebay into the Stairs Station. Water pressure in the penstock forces the water to move slightly uphill into the turbine.

    • Canyon; pipe
    • Reynolds Flat


    • BC015
    • Reynolds Flat

    • Three drainages empty into Reynolds Flat Mill D South Fork (Cardiff Fork), Mill D North Fork and Days Fork. The open area provides space for two popular Forest Service campgrounds: Spruces and Jordan Pines.

    • Canyon; flood plain; recreational use
    • Reynolds Peak


    • BC010
    • Reynolds Peak

    • Reynolds Peak at the top of Mill D North Fork is near the divide between Big Cottonwood and Mill Creek drainages.

    • Canyon
    • Screening debris


    • BC038
    • Screening debris

    • The first stage in water treatment is a screening process that takes out branches, dead animals, cigarette butts, etc. anything that will float. A water jet sprays off the collected debris into a wire enclosure called a back trough. The debris...

    • Canyon
    • Sedimentation


    • BC041
    • Sedimentation

    • Water flow slows in the sedimentation process so that the beefy floc molecule can drop to the bottom of the two reservoirs, stacked on top of each other. The Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant can treat 42 million gallons a day. It provides 24%...

    • Canyon
    • Silver Lake


    • BC005
    • Silver Lake

    • Silver Lake is a popular, year-round recreational spot. A boardwalk makes it wheelchair accessible in the summer. Cross-country skiers circle it in winter.

    • Canyon; lake; recreational use
    • Skiers on Mt. Millicent


    • BC002
    • Skiers on Mt. Millicent

    • Brighton is one of four ski resorts that rely on the Salt Lake Valley watershed to do business. The Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, U.S. Forest Service, and private property owners must strike a tenuous balance among sometimes...

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Snowmobilers


    • BC006
    • Snowmobilers

    • Snowmobilers sled on the Guardsman Pass Road. As Salt Lake Valley population soars, there are inevitable conflicts between incompatible uses of the watershed.

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Snowshoers


    • BC007
    • Snowshoers

    • Snowshoers trek on the Guardsman Pass Road. As Salt Lake Valley population soars, there are inevitable conflicts between incompatible uses of the watershed.

    • Canyon; recreational use
    • Stairs Station


    • BC027
    • Stairs Station

    • Built in 1895 the Stairs Station hydropower plant once supplied all of Salt Lake City's power needs and was the third largest power plant in the nation. The brick is so soft a fingernail can scratch it.

    • Canyon; architecture
    • Stairs Station control room


    • BC029
    • Stairs Station control room

    • Brian Smith can control the water level of the reservoir at the Storm Mountain forebay by raising or lowering the turbine at Stairs Station, maintaining the water level at Storm Mountain to between three and four feet.

    • Canyon
    • Stairs Station generator


    • BC030
    • Stairs Station generator

    • Water passing through the turbine turns the generator. Depending upon water flow, the generator can produce between 1.2 and 1.3 megawatts of power.

    • Canyon
    • Stairs Station spillway


    • BC033
    • Stairs Station spillway

    • The Granite forebay just below Stairs Station maintains the diversion of water from Big Cottonwood Creek to generate power at the Granite Plant at the canyon mouth. Approximately .7 cfs of water is released into the creek, adding to the 4 cfs flow...

    • Canyon; dam; diversion; headgate
    • Storm Mt. spillway


    • BC026
    • Storm Mt. spillway

    • A four cfs flow from springs provides the only water in Big Cottonwood Creek just below the Storm Mountain forebay. The diverted water isn't repatriated into the creek until it reaches the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' water...

    • Canyon
    • Testing


    • BC044
    • Testing

    • Technicians test the water for residual chlorine every two hours. The state requires residual chlorine in water leaving the plant to ensure that, if there were any breach in the system downstream, the residual chlorine would keep the water pure.

    • Canyon
    • Treatment plant south intake


    • BC037
    • Treatment plant south intake

    • The Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant can take water from flow remaining in Big Cottonwood Creek through its south intake, in addition to the water exiting Granite power plant. Water coming from the power plant is cleaner than water in the...

    • Canyon; headgate
    • Twin Lakes


    • BC004
    • Twin Lakes

    • Twin Lakes is one of several lakes in the Wasatch Range that has been dammed to collect and hold more water for downstream use.

    • Canyon; dam; lake; recreational use; reservoir

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