Company withdraws its bid for data center water, but not because it’s backing down

Thousands of protests were filed in a water permit application meant to feed the operations of a massive data center proposed in Box Elder County. But, they won’t be considered by the Utah state engineer, as the company withdrew its application to start a new one. 

A request to change the water use from irrigation to industrial use to, mostly, power a 40,000-acre data center with natural gas was taken back on Thursday. However, developers are still planning on moving forward with their plans, according to correspondence to the state’s Water Rights Division.

“In light of the County’s action on Monday, we are withdrawing the current change application at this time,” Logan Riley, a water consultant wrote to the division on Wednesday afternoon. “Bar H. Ranch intends to resubmit in a timely manner with additional supporting information and to further demonstrate the feasibility of the application.”

Hundreds cry out as Box Elder commissioners wave in massive data center

Box Elder County commissioners unanimously approved two resolutions in support of the data center campus sponsored by Kevin O’Leary, a celebrity investor featured in the reality TV hit “Shark Tank,” and developed with the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), a state entity overseeing infrastructure projects with military missions. That was one of the initial steps before state environmental reviews could begin, commissioners said. 

The water permit application started in March and collected about 3,900 protests in about a month, a sign of the stunning interest the data center project has drawn in the state. Every filing cost $15, accruing about $58,500 for the division.

According to the application, 1,900 acre-feet of water from the Salt Wells Spring Stream would be dedicated for the “Wonder Valley Utah” natural gas power plant, which, according to the filing, has a 7.5 gigawatt capacity — though MIDA representatives have recently said the plant would be able to produce 9 gigawatts of power at full buildout.

“Water diverted under this application will be used primarily for power generation. A portion of the water will also be used in connection with a data center that will operate as a closed-loop system,” the application reads. Any water discharged during flushing of the closed-loop system would eventually return to the Great Salt Lake, the company said.

However, without an environmental study of the equipment the data center is planning to use, communities across the state remain skeptical about the developers’ promises.

Deeda Seed, a senior Utah campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said she has never seen such a high number of protests in a water permit before.

“You can surmise that this was likely a cynical act by the developers to nullify all of the protests that were filed, because they’re all wiped away now,” she said.

Water is her primary concern because resources in the area are already scarce and this kind of project could affect wetland habitat immediately adjacent to the Hansel Valley area.

There is no legal basis for the state engineer to approve the application, the Center for Biological Diversity said in its own protest filing, because of the lack of details on the project and the developers’ failure to demonstrate that their proposed change won’t increase the quantity of water historically diverted on the site. 

According to the organization, it’s possible the water rights’ holder hasn’t used the full amount of water, meaning the developers’ request “would represent a significant increase in the actual consumption rate, and a correspondingly significant loss of inflow to the Great Salt Lake.”

“The implications are so much greater now given the crisis that we’re in, right?” Seed said. “We’ve got the worst drought that we’ve had in recorded history.”

A referendum? TBD 

After hundreds crowded a Box Elder County Fairgrounds event space in an unruly commission special meeting, a group of residents are also organizing to file a referendum against one of the resolutions commissioners approved on Monday.

Appalled by the commission’s decision, Brigette Cottam, who lives in Brigham City, has organized a small group of county voters to sponsor a referendum. 

“I am concerned about our water because we’re already in a water crisis. The Great Salt Lake is already dry enough that we have arsenic air already,” Cottam said. “And my concern is that with these data centers going in right on top of the edge of basically what is the edge of the Great Salt Lake up north, that our water will be gone, will dry up, and then it’ll be uninhabitable here.”

They initially got turned away by the county’s clerk, who argued that since MIDA has an independent authority over its project areas, the commissioners’ consent “is considered an intergovernmental or administrative action,” not a legislative act, and was not eligible for a referendum, according to a response letter. 

Residents did, however, get a call back from the office, saying they could still contest one of the resolutions regarding land use, Cottam said. They intend to file a new referendum application on Friday.  

Cottam wasn’t planning on getting this involved, she said. However, she wants people to know it is possible to fight back.

“The government overreach is ridiculous these days. I think they have too much power. And to my understanding, the commissioners that approved this, they didn’t really have much of a choice at all,” she said.