Artesian Well Park

Artesian Well Park is a small pocket park near downtown Salt Lake City, Utah that contains a natural artesian spring fed by an underground aquifer. It occupies a quarter acre on the southwest corner of the intersection at 800 South and 500 East. People from the surrounding area have been coming to get free water from this spring for over 100 years.

History
Tradition holds that there was a spring at this site used by Latter-day Saint settlers to water oxen hauling stone from the quarry in Little Cottonwood Canyon to the Salt Lake Temple construction site. There is no record when the well itself was drilled, although it could date to the 1890s, when drought forced city leaders to look for alternative water sources, besides the commonly used snowpack runoff. In 1936, Salt Lake City filed a water claim for a flow of 2-20 gallons per minute and listed the priority date as 1890. For much of its history, the city did not own the corner lot, but maintained the well as a courtesy.

After the city's parks committee was formed in the mid-1970s, one of its first projects was to get the city to condemn and purchase the dilapidated lot which contained the well and develop it as a small park. The new park was dedicated on October 18, 1980. Salt Lake City invested $79,450 to create the park and configure the water to flow out of a concrete casing with spigots. The well casing and plumbing were upgraded four years later.

When initially opened, the park was simply called "City Well Park" but was renamed "Artesian Well Park" in 1987, following a "Name the Park" contest held to rename several of Salt Lake City's smaller, often unnamed, parks. In 2020, the city made significant upgrades to the park, including rebuilding the water feature as an arch with spigots to accommodate larger water containers.

Water quality and safety
To ensure the water flowing from the spring is potable, Salt Lake City tests it weekly for coliform bacteria and monthly for perchlorate. Tests for metals and chemical contaminants like pesticides and herbicides are performed annually. Good4Utah had water from the spring independently tested, and found that the water did not contain pesticides, chlorine, fluoride, bacteria, arsenic, or lead. The Good4Utah test also showed that the water was relatively hard, containing a lot of calcium, magnesium, and iron. In 2007, the artesian spring water did test positive for perchlorate at a level of 4.6 parts per billion (ppb), which was below the EPA's guideline of 24.5 ppb. The safe level for perchlorate in drinking water is debated, with some states setting it at 200 ppb and others setting it at 1 ppb. For 2015-2016, Salt Lake City reported a perchlorate level in the water of 2-4 ppb.

Water source


The spring is fed by an aquifer that extends all the way up underneath the University of Utah, and may be fed in part by Red Butte Creek. Percolation to the spring is quite slow, with water from as close as five blocks away taking three years to arrive at the spring. The nearby Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park also contains natural springs.