Oquirrh Lake (South Jordan, Utah)

 park, lake, water

Built in 2005, the 65-acre man-made Oquirrh Lake retains stormwater and supplies reserve irrigation water to the Daybreak Community while providing habitat to over 59 species of birds and game fish.

The lake was named after the Oquirrh Mountains (pronounced O-Ker) that are just to the East of Daybreak. The name Oquirrh came from local Native American tribes. In the Goshute language, Oquirrh means "wooded mountain" while in the Ute language the word means "The Shining Mountains" or "Glowing."

Oquirrh lake was designed and created by a variety of construction and landscaping firms and has been a massive undertaking. 35 million cubic feet of earth was moved and used in other areas of the development. Once they had dug a massive hole they constructed a dam and lined the lake with three layers: High Density Polyethelene to keep the water from going into the ground, gravel, and silt to make a natural lake bottom. Twenty-five thousand tons of rock were also put in place to create a shore line and habitat for the ecosystem.

The lake is home to minnows, bluegill, channel cats, large-mouth bass and eventually trout. The water that these fish live in comes from Utah Lake and natural runoff. As these two sources are not the cleanest, a computerized filtration system cleans the water to acceptable levels.