Manages and funds fish, wildlife, and recreation mitigation and conservation projects authorized under CUPCA. The Commission is charged by the Central Utah Project Completion Act of 1992 with completing the Central Utah Project to bring water from the Uinta Mountains to the Wasatch Front.

The Commission consists of five commissioners, appointed by the President, and approximately a dozen staff headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under the Commission's umbrella authority, other federal and Utah state agencies, local governments, universities, non-profit organizations, and the Ute tribe cooperate through agreements with the Commission to implement of a wide variety of ecosystem restoration and wildlife conservation projects in Utah.

CUPCA requires the Commission to adopt an annual Mitigation and Conservation Plan that sets out the Commission's priorities for implementing mitigation measures and programs required by the Act. Each draft Plan undergoes review by the public and the Commission's cooperating agencies prior to final adoption by the Commission. The first Plan was adopted in 1996, and is revised annually. The Commission shall expire twenty years from the end of the fiscal year during which the Secretary declares the Central Utah Project to be substantially complete.

In October 2016 President Obama named two Utahns, Robert L. Morgan and Gene Shawcroft, to the Commission. Morgan is a former head of the Utah DNR and ex-state engineer. Shawcroft is the General Manager of the Central Utah Waster Conservancy District.