Bear Lake County Water Report

Bear Lake County's drinking water received a D grade, scoring 48.5 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 1 health-based violation — a single incident worth monitoring.

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). A substantial 51.8% of assessed waterways are impaired (59 of 114 water bodies) across Bear Lake County's watersheds. The leading impairment causes are phosphorus, total and total suspended solids (tss). Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T12:45:00.000-06:00) puts BEAR RIVER at 494.0 cfs — running somewhat below its historical average at 87% of mean. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Bear Lake County has moderate coverage with 39 active monitoring sites with 10,988 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include physical and nutrient. More monitoring sites generally indicate greater scientific attention to local water conditions — and provide the baseline data that regulators use to set future impairment listings.