The research behind the mission.
Utah Waterways: A Submerged Debris Atlas — Fathom Restoration's documented and estimated inventory of submerged vehicles, vessels, aircraft, and structural losses across 20 Utah lakes and reservoirs, converted to potential water contamination using EPA-published dispersion factors.
What's at risk if the debris stays down.
These are ceiling-case figures — what could leak if nothing is recovered — not measured current contamination. They are built from individually documented incidents plus a defensible estimated range, then run through EPA dispersion factors.
7.64 billion gallons is enough water to fill roughly 11,577 Olympic swimming pools, or supply about 86,829 U.S. households for an entire year.
How the numbers are built.
Every figure on this page is reproducible from public sources. Here is exactly how each is derived — and where the underlying factors come from.
Fluids per item
We estimate ~20 gallons of polluting fluids per submerged item: 17 gal fuel, 1.25 gal motor oil, and 1.75 gal transmission fluid and coolant.
EPA dispersion factors
1 gallon of used motor oil can contaminate up to 1,000,000 gallons of fresh water (EPA Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery). 1 gallon of gasoline ~750,000 gallons (EPA Underground Storage Tank detection thresholds). Transmission fluid and coolant estimated conservatively at 750,000 each.
Documented vs. estimated
"Documented" counts individually sourced incidents — each tied to a news source, government record, court filing, peer-reviewed study, or salvage operator case file. "Estimated" adds a defensible range implied by patterns but not individually documented.
Ceiling-case framing
All water-at-risk figures are upper-bound ceilings — the contamination potential if debris is never recovered. They are not a claim of current measured contamination.
7.64 billion gallons, against real Utah water.
All 20 lakes at a glance.
Sorted by water-at-risk magnitude. "Documented" is the count of individually sourced incidents; "Estimated" is the defensible range from the research methodology. Full per-lake source lists are in the PDF atlas.
| Lake / Reservoir | Status | Surface | Documented | Estimated | Water at risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Powell (Utah portion) | Priority | 254 sq mi | 53 | 100–200 | 2,296,875,000 gal |
| Flaming Gorge Reservoir | Monitored | 66 sq mi | 18 | 25–100 | 949,375,000 gal |
| Bear Lake | Monitored | 109 sq mi | 37 | 35–80 | 888,125,000 gal |
| Great Salt Lake 303(d) impaired | Priority | 950 sq mi | 30 | 35–60 | 735,000,000 gal |
| Utah Lake | Priority | 148 sq mi | 16 | 25–60 | 643,125,000 gal |
| Pineview Reservoir | Priority | 4.4 sq mi | 23 | 18–35 | 398,125,000 gal |
| Strawberry Reservoir | Monitored | 26 sq mi | 10 | 12–30 | 321,562,500 gal |
| Deer Creek Reservoir | Priority | 4.6 sq mi | 6 | 8–25 | 245,000,000 gal |
| Jordanelle Reservoir | Priority | 5.1 sq mi | 6 | 6–20 | 199,062,500 gal |
| Quail Creek Reservoir | Monitored | 1.4 sq mi | 5 | 5–20 | 183,750,000 gal |
| Sand Hollow Reservoir | Monitored | 2.4 sq mi | 4 | 4–15 | 153,125,000 gal |
| Yuba Reservoir | Monitored | 16.7 sq mi | 3 | 2–12 | 107,187,500 gal |
| Rockport Reservoir | Monitored | 1.0 sq mi | 4 | 3–10 | 91,875,000 gal |
| East Canyon Reservoir | Monitored | 0.7 sq mi | 3 | 3–10 | 91,875,000 gal |
| Fish Lake | Monitored | 4.1 sq mi | 2 | 2–10 | 91,875,000 gal |
| Echo Reservoir | Monitored | 1.6 sq mi | 1 | 2–8 | 76,562,500 gal |
| Panguitch Lake | Monitored | 1.6 sq mi | 2 | 1–6 | 61,250,000 gal |
| Otter Creek Reservoir | Monitored | 4.0 sq mi | 2 | 1–5 | 45,937,500 gal |
| Causey Reservoir | Monitored | 0.3 sq mi | 0 | 0–3 | 30,625,000 gal |
| Mantua Reservoir | Monitored | 0.86 sq mi | 1 | 0–3 | 30,625,000 gal |
| 20 lakes & reservoirs | — | 226 | 499 total | 7.64 billion gal |
Read all 46 pages, with per-lake source lists.
The complete atlas documents every individually sourced incident lake by lake, with its primary source, plus the methodology, benchmarks, and contamination science in full.
The citation chain.
Every derived figure on this page traces back to a public authority. Underlying incident sources are listed per lake in the PDF atlas.
- U.S. EPA, Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery — used motor oil dispersion (1 gal contaminates up to 1,000,000 gal of fresh water).
- U.S. EPA, Underground Storage Tank program — gasoline groundwater contamination thresholds (~750,000 gal per gal).
- Utah Lake Authority — Utah Lake total water capacity (~294 billion gal).
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — Bear Lake and Lake Powell capacity tables; Great Salt Lake restoration funding ($50M+, greatsaltlake.utah.gov, 2024).
- Utah Division of Water Resources — reservoir and watershed data.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey — Utah household counts and residential water use.
- Per-lake incident records — news reporting, government records, court filings, peer-reviewed studies, and salvage operator case files (detailed in the PDF).