About MWD

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Operations & Maintenance

The Operations & Maintenance Department performs the crucial task of delivering quality water to District customers. Operators are on shifts around-the-clock at both the Little Cottonwood and Point of the Mountain Water Treatment Plants. All operators maintain the highest level of certification, Grade IV Operator Certification with the State of Utah. Extensive on-the-job training is required to meet the number of challenges that occur from day-to-day with the ever changing quality of incoming water and strict water quality standards that the District has implemented. Maintenance employees maintain all District facilities and preventative maintenance is scheduled and performed on a routine basis to ensure that the treatment plants and conveyance systems stay in top operating condition.

To obtain a better understanding of the water treatment process, please take our virtual tour.

Environmental Services

Environmental Services' primary objective is to ensure safe drinking water is delivered to the District's customers. The Environmental Services Department has a National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Committee (NELAC) certified lab that performs water quality testing for Salt Lake City, Sandy City, and various outside agencies. The lab also performs internal process control testing to insure the highest possible quality of water delivered to District customers. Department staff works diligently to meet water quality compliance standards set by regulatory authorities.

Another valuable tool used to insure water quality is the District's pilot plant which tests various chemicals and processes for safety and effectiveness prior to changing chemicals and/or procedures for water treatment at District facilities.

Department staff actively participate in the Partnership for Safe Water, the Utah Water Quality Alliance, and the Provo River Watershed Council regarding water quality issues. These working groups are pro-active in addressing items that have an impact on water quality.

Information Services

As the District has grown in size and capacity over the years, so too has the District's need for information technology (IT). The IT group and the Instrumentation & Electrical (I&E) group functioned as separate teams until 2004 when the District combined the two groups and created the Information Services (IS) Department. With each of these groups' responsibilities being so closely related, combining teams has made project coordination more seamless and troubleshooting and maintenance more efficient.

The IS Department provides a wide range of services and its main priority as a team is to help the District achieve its mission by ensuring that all PC/S (an acronym for Process Control/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition or SCADA), instrumentation, electrical, and IT systems and equipment function efficiently and reliably.

Engineering Department

The Engineering Department manages projects related to the District's infrastructure and capital improvements. The Engineering Department also manages the work of engineering consultants during the study, design, and construction phases of assigned projects. The Engineering Department recently completed managing the Metro Water Project, a $250 million dollar project. Staff continues to manage encroachments along the Salt Lake Aqueduct corridor, Point of the Mountain Aqueduct corridor, and other District properties.