You’ve probably never thought about it, but you can’t live a day without it.

You’ve Probably Never Thought About It, But You Can’t Live A Day Without It.

What is it? It’s the Salt Lake City Water Reclamation Facility. Where everything you put down the drain ends up.

We enjoyed hosting the Salt Lake Tribune on a tour of the Salt Lake City Water Reclamation Facility (a.k.a. wastewater treatment plant).

Check out the Salt Lake Tribune story here: “SLC sewer rates may double, officials say your waste is worth it” and keep reading below to learn more about why….

For those who have never visited our facility (or spent much time thinking about where wastewater goes) here are a couple of quick historical fun facts:

Existing Facility
Prior to the 1960’s we just sent the raw wastewater for all of Salt Lake City up the Northwest Drain canal to sewage farms and then the Great Salt Lake.

In the 1960’s we built the facility you see today – next time you drive past the 2300 North exit on I-15, you can see some of our facilities as you look to the west.

The facility you see out there today was built a few years prior to the Clean Water Act (1972). The current facility was designed to treat to secondary water treatment standards. This was a huge step in protecting our public health and our natural environment.

We now have the technology to treat to a higher standard. We can remove nutrients like phosphorus from our water – these nutrients contribute to things like the algae blooms you’ve seen in the news.

So why do we need to build a whole new facility?

• This plant is due for replacement
• It does not meet today’s seismic standards
• The current plant cannot simply be added to in order to meet the new regulations – we weighed 21 different alternatives and looked closely at each (based on safety, cost and environmental factors) and determined that this is the very best path forward for SLC today and for future generations who will inherit this system. It is being designed to allow for future regulations and growth that may come.