Red Butte Creek originates in the mountains of northeastern Salt Lake County. After exiting the canyon, the creek makes a rapid transition to built-out, urbanized land use through the University of Utah campus and into Salt Lake City before discharging into the Jordan River. The creek’s ecosystems and proximity to campus make it an outstanding resource for scientific and educational research.

• For access to the Red Butte Canyon research natural area, the U of U Red Butte Creek Vision, and related research projects, go to redbuttecreek.utah.edu.
• As part of our Stormwater Management Plan, the University of Utah strives to prevent pollution from entering Red Butte Creek as well as the local storm drain system. The U prohibits the commencement, conduct or continuance of any illegal, or non-storm water discharge on campus. For more information please visit: https://oehs.utah.edu/topics/stormwater-management-program.

In 2013, The Wasatch Environmental Observatory (WEO) Red Butte Creek Network was constructed with support from the NSF funded iUTAH project (iutahepscor.org).  The network consists of 4 Climate Stations, 7 Aquatic Stations, and 2 Storm Drain monitoring stations located from the headwaters of Red Butte Canyon to the confluence of Red Butte Creek and the Jordan River.  Sensors at each station measure a range of standard metrological and hydrologic variables at a fifteen minute time resolution.  Raw data with complete metadata is uploaded daily to the open access hydrologic data repository, hydroshare.org (links below).  Contact Dr. Paul Brooks (paul.brooks@utah.edu) at the University of Utah with questions about the network.

 

Station	Code	RAW Data	Quality Controlled Data	Rating Curves
Climate Stations:
GIRF Climate	GIRF_C	GIRF_C RAW Data	GIRF_C QC Data	n/a
Above Red Butte Reservoir Climate	ARBR_C	ARBR_C RAW Data	ARBR_C QC Data	n/a
Todds Meadow Climate	TM_C	TM_C RAW Data	TM_C QC Data	n/a
Knowlton Fork Climate	KF_C	KF_C RAW Data	KF_C QC Data	n/a
Aquatic Stations:
Lower Knowlton Fork Aquatic	LKF_A	LKF_A RAW Data	LKF_A QC Data	Discharge calculated using flume. No published rating curve
Above Red Butte Reservoir Aquatic	ARBR_A	ARBR_A RAW Data	ARBR_A QC Data	USGS Station at this site -- no rating curve
Red Butte Gate Aquatic	RBG_A	RBG_A RAW Data	RBG_A QC Data	RBG_A rating curves
Cottam's Grove Aquatic	CG_A	CG_A RAW Data	CG_A QC Data	CG_A rating curves
Foothill Drive Aquatic:	FD_A	FD_A RAW Data	FD_A QC Data	FD_A rating curves
1300 E Aquatic:	1300E_A	1300E_A RAW Data	1300E_A QC Data	Rating curve not yet published.
900 W Aquatic:	900W_A	900W_A RAW Data	900W_A QC Data	Discharge calculated with insitu velocity sensor. No rating curve
Storm Drain Stations:
Dentistry Storm Drain	Dent_SD	Dent_SD RAW Data	Dent_SD QC Data	n/a
Connor Road Storm Drain	CR_SD	CR_SD RAW Data	CR_SD QC Data	n/a