HIDDEN WATER: SALT LAKE COUNTY, UT DRAINAGES, A PART OF THE WESTERN WATERS DIGITAL LIBRARY

Hidden Water unveils surface water systems on the east side of Salt Lake Valley, both culinary and irrigation. The web site follows the seven major streams of the Wasatch Front, plus minor ones, and tracks that water from headwaters to the Jordan River and then the Great Salt Lake. It intermixes contemporary photographs with historical photographs from several archives showing earlier uses and diversions of water. The web site documents how stakeholders utilize the water with treatment plants, hydropower plants and irrigation ditches. In turn, these public, recreational and commercial uses flow from water rights dating back to territorial days. The term "hidden water" refers to our tendency to take our water system for granted. We turn a tap and expect the water to flow. Where water comes from and how it's delivered is "hidden" to us. Somehow, it crosses a jumble of political divisions and property lines and arrives at our taps. The intention of the ‘Hidden Water’ web site is to make that system visible and transparent.