Stop Construction of $150 Million Trans-loading Facility Funded by Tax Dollars
The Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) wants you to believe the proposed polluting port is a ‘done deal’ so we’ll stop fighting against this destructive polluting project. It isn’t a done deal!
The Port Authority is now discussing creation of a ‘Public Infrastructure District’ governed by a board they appoint, removing their activities from public view, to issue more than $150 million in publicly backed bonds to be paid off with tax dollars from the inland port area to build a trans-loading facility. The trans-loading facility is intended to benefit the Ports of Oakland and Long Beach by reducing shipping container and truck congestion at those ports. Thousands of shipping containers would come to Utah by rail every day and be off-loaded in the inland port area onto trucks. This would massively increase the number of polluting diesel trucks traveling in and out of the inland port, and throughout the Salt Lake Valley and northern Utah.
Building a trans-loading facility has been cited by the property owners (i.e. Colmena and Rio Tinto) in the proposed port area who want to develop up to 152 million square feet of warehouse space as the key to their ability to make a profit. Preventing the public funding of this transloading facility will help stop the polluting port.
Salt Lake City and Utah taxpayers should not be on the hook to subsidize a massively expensive trans-loading facility that will increase pollution, traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize the construction of tens of millions of square feet of polluting, destructive warehouse space. This is part of the reason Salt Lake City is suing the State of Utah over the creation of the Port Authority. A decision from the Utah Supreme Court could come anytime. Help stop this destructive boondoggle!
Read Salt Lake City’s letter to the Utah Inland Port.
