Built to be transparent.
Public budgets. Documented governance. Verifiable spending. Annual Form 990 reporting. We chose the nonprofit structure precisely because it requires this level of accountability, and we lean into it.
Every policy. Signed. On file. Available on request.
We don't list these as a promise. We list them because they're already adopted by board resolution and in force from day one.
Filed with and approved by the State of Utah. Establishes Fathom Restoration as a Utah nonprofit corporation.
Full corporate governance framework. Signed by all three founding directors. Defines voting, officer authority, and procedure.
Annual disclosure from every director and officer. Recusal procedures for any directly or indirectly interested decision.
Protected reporting channels for financial misconduct, governance violations, or operational safety concerns without retaliation.
Seven-year retention schedule covering financial records, donor data, meeting minutes, and contracts, per IRS guidelines.
Founding board meeting minutes signed by all directors. Establishes officer election, signing authority, and banking authorization.
Our complete startup and operating budget.
Published in our IRS application and in every grant proposal we submit. No hidden line items, no inflated overhead, and as of June 2026, $0 of this is secured. We show the gap on purpose.
One-time capital purchase: vessels ($260K), dive equipment ($178K), trucks ($165K), ROV ($120K), hydraulic lift ($115K), HazMat containment ($88K), working capital reserve ($498K).
Recurring annual costs: full team payroll ($795K), fuel, insurance, certifications, compliance, equipment maintenance, ongoing training, and field operations.
Total revenue goal Year One, combined grants, donations, sponsorships. Secured to date: $0. Built with a 10% operating reserve in every projection.
What we commit to once operational.
As a recognized 501(c)(3) we file an annual IRS Form 990 (or 990-EZ depending on revenue). This document becomes public record on Candid (formerly GuideStar) and at the IRS website.
Each year we publish a stakeholder-facing annual report covering recoveries completed, contamination contained, financial summary, partner acknowledgments, and forward-year plan.
Quarterly updates against our published Year One impact goals, recoveries, contamination contained, water quality data, funds deployed, partnerships active.
Every recovery operation will be documented in a public incident report within 30 days, including water quality data, photos, and partner notifications.
Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, governance policies, signed meeting minutes, operating budget, and grant pipeline. Email us with your name, role, and what you need.
Request DocumentsWhen we get a number wrong, we fix it in public.
On August 4, 2026 we corrected several environmental statistics across this site and our Submerged Debris Atlas. We found the problem ourselves by re-checking every claim against its primary source. Nobody forced this correction, and that is the point: if we will not publish a number we cannot defend, you can trust the ones we do publish. Here is exactly what changed.
"A single gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to one million gallons of fresh water," attributed to the U.S. EPA.
EPA's wording is "used oil from one oil change," not "one gallon." The 1:1,000,000 ratio traces to a 1974 drinking-water taste-and-odor threshold, not a measure of ecological harm.
Under the Clean Water Act, an oil discharge is harmful the moment it causes a film or sheen on the water (40 CFR Part 110). There is no safe amount.
"One quart of motor oil fouls 250,000 gallons of drinking water; one gallon of gasoline contaminates 750,000 gallons of groundwater."
The quart figure is the same barred ratio divided by four. The gasoline figure does not trace to an EPA primary source at all.
Removed. Gasoline's real hazard is its content: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). Benzene is a known human carcinogen.
That the debris in our Atlas put up to 7.64 billion gallons of Utah fresh water at risk.
Nothing. The number was built by multiplying fluid estimates by the barred dispersion ratio, so it fell with the ratio.
Retired entirely. We lead with what we can prove: 226 individually confirmed items and 499 documented and estimated, across 20 lakes, every confirmed item tied to a named public source.
That the documented and estimated items held 9,980 gallons of fuel, oil, transmission fluid, and coolant.
That figure applied a flat 20 gallons to every item, including roughly 52 structures, from bridge pilings to a safe, that hold no automotive fluids.
Rebuilt from manufacturer specifications by category: a non-fuel floor of roughly 520 gallons, and roughly 2,000 to 3,700 gallons with fuel stated as an explicit assumption.
What holds up is still serious: USGS documents oil from a 1979 pipeline spill near Bemidji, Minnesota contaminating groundwater more than four decades later, and federal law treats any visible sheen as a harmful discharge. Blog posts published before August 4, 2026 may still contain the retired figures; this page is the correction of record. Sources: EPA, Managing Used Oil · EPA, harmful quantity of discharged oil · USGS, Bemidji research site. Questions: info@fathomrestoration.org.
Transparent from day one.
The choice to operate as a nonprofit means accepting public accountability. We didn't take that on reluctantly, we did it because the work demands it.