Utah

Water Quality in the State of Utah

Water quality in Utah is governed by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. Utah gets the majority of its water from the Valley-Fill, Cache Valley, and Cedar Valley Aquifers. Watersheds supplying Utah residents with drinking water are City Creek, Parleys, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Water in Utah is considered to be very hard. People across the state must deal with hard water daily. The state average is right around 298 PPM.

Utah Water Hardness by City

The largest city and state capital, Salt Lake City, has the lowest water hardness with 158 PPM. The next largest city in Utah is West Valley City which has hard water at a level of 230 PPM. Close to the State average water hardness of 340 PPM is the city of St. George with a water hardness of 342 PPM. The hardest water can be found in cities like Blanding, with 598 PPM, and Riverton with 574 PPM.

For more information on the water hardness in specific cities, please see the table below.

What is the water hardness in my area?

City	Water Hardness Data
Alpine 84004	359 PPM (mg/L) or 21 gpg
American Fork  84003	257 PPM (mg/L) or 15 gpg
Blanding 84511	598 PPM (mg/L) or 35 gpg
Bountiful 84010	513 PPM (mg/L) or 38 gpg
Brigham City  84720 | 84721	325 PPM (mg/L) or 9 gpg
Cedar City 84720 | 84721	417 PPM (mg/L) or 27 gpg
Coalville 84017	325 PPM (mg/L) or 19 gpg
Draper 84020	357 PPM (mg/L) or 21 gpg
Eagle Mountain 84005	323 PPM (mg/L) or 9 gpg
Ephraim 84627	517 PPM (mg/L) or 30 gpg
Goshen 84633	462 PPM (mg/L) or 27 gpg
Herriman 84096	359 PPM (mg/L) or 21 gpg
Hurricane  84737	393 PPM (mg/L) or 15 gpg
Layton 84040 | 84041	352 PPM (mg/L) or 21 gpg
Lehi 84043	200 PPM (mg/L) or 11 gpg
Logan 84321 | 84341	255 PPM (mg/L) or 15 gpg
Manti 84642	221 PPM (mg/L) or 13 gpg
Mapleton 84664	393 PPM (mg/L) or 23gpg
Meadow 84325	496 PPM (mg/L) or 29 gpg
Morgan 84050	513 PPM (mg/L) or 30 gpg
Midvale 84047	327 PPM (mg/L) or 19 gpg
Ogden 84404 | 84401 | 84403 | 84405	170 PPM (mg/L) or 10 gpg
Orem 84057 | 84058 | 84097	301 PPM (mg/L) or 18 gpg
Park City 84060 | 84098	444 PPM (mg/L) or 26 gpg
Payson 84651	428 PPM (mg/L) or 25 gpg
Pleasant Grove 84062	359 PPM (mg/L) or 21 gpg
Provo 84604 | 84606 | 84601	164 PPM (mg/L) or 9 gpg
Riverton 84065	574 PPM (mg/L) or 34 gpg
Roy 84067	384 PPM (mg/L) or 22 gpg
Salem 84653	324 PPM (mg/L) or 19 gpg
Salt Lake City 84118 | 84121 | 84123 | 84106 | 84116 | 84107 | 84115 | 84104 | 84117 | 84109 | 84105 | 84108 | 84124 | 84103 | 84102 | 84111 | 84101 | 84112 | 84113 | 84180	210 PPM (mg/L) or 12 gpg
Sandy 84070 | 84092 | 84093 | 84094	308 PPM (mg/L) or 18 gpg
Santaquin 84655	428 PPM (mg/L) or 25 gpg
Saratoga Springs  84045	376 PPM (mg/L) or 22 gpg
South Jordan 84095	146 PPM (mg/L) or 8 gpg
Spanish Fork 84660	427 PPM (mg/L) or 25 gpg
Springville 84663	393 PPM (mg/L) or 23 gpg
St. George 84770 | 84790	342 PPM (mg/L) or 20 gpg
Tooele 84074	310 PPM (mg/L) or 18 gpg
Vernal  84078	410 PPM (mg/L) or 24 gpg
Washington City 84780	516 PPM (mg/L) or 30 gpg
West Jordan 84084 | 84088	148 PPM (mg/L) or 8 gpg
West Valley City 84119 | 84120 | 84128	230 PPM (mg/L) or 13 gpg
Woods Cross  84087	342 PPM (mg/L) or 20 gpg

PPM = Parts Per Million

mg/L = Milligrams Per Liter

gpg = Grains Per Gallon

Manufacturing and Water Hardness

Utah has been moving up the ranks as a leading state for manufacturing, bringing in more than 20 billion per year. Utah's top manufacturing industries are computer and electronic products, aerospace technology, and metal manufacturing. Product processing in most manufacturing plants requires water. Cooling towers and HVAC are imperative to keeping operations running smoothly. Water hardness levels can be as high as 1,000 PPM; with water hardness levels this high, manufacturing equipment can deteriorate at a rapid pace and experience efficiency loss. Mining is also a significant contributor to Utah's growing economy. The mining sector in Utah consumes significant amounts of water that can be as hard as 15,000 PPM. 

Solutions to your Water Quality Problems

Fixing your water quality issues in the state of Utah will depend on your specific water source. It is best to test your potable water supply in order to get a better understanding of your water quality. Testing is relatively cheap. The test results will allow you to understand if your potable water has issues that need to be addressed. Common solutions to water contamination problems may include a water filtration system, a reverse osmosis system, or other whole-home water treatment solutions.

A problem that almost all Utah residents will have to deal with is hard water. Salt Lake City is the most populous city has a water hardness of 158 PPM making finding a solution for the majority of the residents very important. One old-fashioned, inefficient, expensive, and unhealthy method to treat hard water is with a salt-based water softener. Most people don’t realize that if you’re using a water softener, you are basically removing calcium and magnesium from your drinking water and adding salt to your diet. In addition, many states are banning the use of salt-based water softeners.

Alternative water treatment solutions such as “water conditioners” have been gaining popularity in recent years because they are cheap to operate and the best eco-friendly solution for hard water. Hydropath technology, which powers the HydroFLOW water conditioners, is by far the most efficient and cost-effective eco-friendly solution to deal with hard water problems. To learn more about how HydroFLOW solves the problems created by hard water, please check out our technology page. You might want to read this blog that explains the difference between water conditioners and water softeners: Water Conditioner vs. Water Softener Blog.