Utah Waterways
An interactive atlas of submerged vehicles, vessels, aircraft, and structures across 20 Utah lakes.
The 20 Utah waterways in the Submerged Debris Atlas
Fathom Restoration's Utah Waterways Submerged Debris Atlas documents 499 documented and estimated submerged vehicles, vessels, aircraft, and debris items across 20 Utah lakes and reservoirs, with roughly 7.64 billion gallons of water at risk from their leaking fluids. Documented counts are confirmed incidents; estimates account for unrecorded losses.
- Lake Powell (Utah portion): priority waterway. 53 documented submerged items, 100-200 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 2.3 billion gallons of water at risk across 254 sq mi of surface.
- Flaming Gorge Reservoir: monitored waterway. 18 documented submerged items, 25-100 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 949 million gallons of water at risk across 66 sq mi of surface.
- Bear Lake: monitored waterway. 37 documented submerged items, 35-80 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 888 million gallons of water at risk across 109 sq mi of surface.
- Great Salt Lake: priority (303(d) impaired) waterway. 30 documented submerged items, 35-60 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 735 million gallons of water at risk across 950 sq mi of surface.
- Utah Lake: priority waterway. 16 documented submerged items, 25-60 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 643 million gallons of water at risk across 148 sq mi of surface.
- Pineview Reservoir: priority waterway. 23 documented submerged items, 18-35 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 398 million gallons of water at risk across 4.4 sq mi of surface.
- Strawberry Reservoir: monitored waterway. 10 documented submerged items, 12-30 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 322 million gallons of water at risk across 26 sq mi of surface.
- Deer Creek Reservoir: priority waterway. 6 documented submerged items, 8-25 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 245 million gallons of water at risk across 4.6 sq mi of surface.
- Jordanelle Reservoir: priority waterway. 6 documented submerged items, 6-20 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 199 million gallons of water at risk across 5.1 sq mi of surface.
- Quail Creek Reservoir: monitored waterway. 5 documented submerged items, 5-20 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 184 million gallons of water at risk across 1.4 sq mi of surface.
- Sand Hollow Reservoir: monitored waterway. 4 documented submerged items, 4-15 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 153 million gallons of water at risk across 2.4 sq mi of surface.
- Yuba Reservoir: monitored waterway. 3 documented submerged items, 2-12 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 107 million gallons of water at risk across 16.7 sq mi of surface.
- Rockport Reservoir: monitored waterway. 4 documented submerged items, 3-10 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 92 million gallons of water at risk across 1.0 sq mi of surface.
- East Canyon Reservoir: monitored waterway. 3 documented submerged items, 3-10 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 92 million gallons of water at risk across 0.7 sq mi of surface.
- Fish Lake: monitored waterway. 2 documented submerged items, 2-10 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 92 million gallons of water at risk across 4.1 sq mi of surface.
- Echo Reservoir: monitored waterway. 1 documented submerged items, 2-8 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 77 million gallons of water at risk across 1.6 sq mi of surface.
- Panguitch Lake: monitored waterway. 2 documented submerged items, 1-6 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 61 million gallons of water at risk across 1.6 sq mi of surface.
- Otter Creek Reservoir: monitored waterway. 2 documented submerged items, 1-5 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 46 million gallons of water at risk across 4.0 sq mi of surface.
- Causey Reservoir: monitored waterway. 0 documented submerged items, 0-3 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 31 million gallons of water at risk across 0.3 sq mi of surface.
- Mantua Reservoir: monitored waterway. 1 documented submerged items, 0-3 estimated including unrecorded, roughly 31 million gallons of water at risk across 0.86 sq mi of surface.
Tap a lake on the interactive map for sources, incident histories, and contamination methodology.
If we leave the debris in place, this is what happens.
Documented and estimated submerged debris across all 20 lakes, converted to potential water contamination using EPA-published dispersion factors. These are ceiling-case numbers -- what could leak if nothing is recovered -- not measured current contamination.
submerged items
fluid, coolant
potentially at risk
0 gallons at risk -- relative to documented Utah water benchmarks:
Sources: Utah Lake Authority; USBR Bear Lake + Lake Powell capacity tables; Utah Division of Water Resources; US Census ACS.
How we calculated these numbers
Per submerged item we estimate ~20 gallons of polluting fluids (17 fuel + 1.25 motor oil + 1.75 transmission fluid + coolant). Water-at-risk uses EPA-published dispersion factors: 1 gallon of used motor oil can contaminate up to 1,000,000 gallons of fresh water (EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, used-oil factsheet); 1 gallon of gasoline can contaminate approximately 750,000 gallons at EPA Underground Storage Tank detection thresholds. ATF and ethylene-glycol coolant are estimated conservatively at 750,000 gallons each.
These are upper-bound ceiling figures assuming complete release and full dispersion to detection limits. Actual contamination depends on tank integrity, water chemistry, time submerged, and recovery.
Methodology & disclaimers
What this atlas covers: submerged vehicles, vessels, aircraft, and large debris compiled from incident reports, news archives, agency records, and dive-community documentation across 20 Utah lakes and reservoirs.
Item counts use the midpoint of the documented + estimated range. Where documented evidence (confirmed incidents) exceeds the estimate midpoint, the confirmed count is used. Confirmed counts include items that have since been recovered. The estimate midpoint is the best approximation of items currently submerged.
Pre-2000 incident records are sparse for most lakes outside Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake. Wasatch County SAR explicitly does not maintain records before 1994. USCG BARD database excludes Utah data per DHS PIA-011.
This is a research compilation, not an engineering survey. Contamination figures are upper-bound estimates. Numbers should not be cited in legal, regulatory, or engineering contexts without primary-source verification.
About Fathom Restoration
Utah's first dedicated underwater vehicle recovery nonprofit. We recover submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris to protect the waterways our communities depend on.
Veteran-founded. IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit.
Contact: info@fathomrestoration.org
EIN: 42-2166469
Site: fathomrestoration.org
Report a submerged vehicle
Know of a submerged vehicle we don't have on this map? Help us catalog it.