Why is the Utah Inland Port taking on remediation of a Salt Lake City landfill?
Last week, the Utah Inland Port Authority broke ground on a $200+ million cleanup of the decades-old North Temple landfill near Salt Lake City’s west side. While we support proper remediation of toxic waste, this project raises serious questions.
The landfill has sat undisturbed since it closed in 1979, and environmental officials have said thick layers of clay have kept contamination mostly contained. So why the sudden urgency — and why is the controversial Utah Inland Port Authority in charge?
Utah News Dispatch outlined the history of the project, “Back in 2018, a real estate arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints named the Suburban Land Reserve donated the landfill to the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), which manages a portfolio of trust land to generate revenue for public schools and other state institutions.
Trust Lands officials had already started the process to remediate the site in a “phased approach,” according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.”
The Inland Port Authority is being funded with taxpayer-backed bonds and tax increment dollars originally meant to offset the impacts of industrial development. The clean up is not being done primarily for public health or the environment — it’s being done to clear the way for more port development projects. The port’s original plan for a truck-to-train transloading hub has already been abandoned. Now, the vision is “advanced manufacturing,” despite the lack of public input or a clear environmental justification.
Cleaning up old landfills can be a good thing. But doing it to incentivize future industrial sprawl, funded with public money, and led by a politically powerful agency with a troubling track record? That deserves scrutiny.
We must ask: is this remediation truly about protecting the Great Salt Lake and our health, or about opening more land for developers under the guise of progress?
More about the Inland Port’s troubling history here:
