Over 1,100 Utahns Call on Inland Port Authority (UIPA) to Adopt Binding Policy Keeping Data Centers Out of Great Salt Lake Basin
UIPA’s own financing tools — not just direct subsidies — are enabling water-intensive development near Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — More than 1,100 Utahns have signed onto a letter delivered today to the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) Board, before its Aug 4 board meeting, calling on the agency to adopt a binding, board-approved policy barring its financing tools from being used to support data centers anywhere in the Great Salt Lake basin.
The letter comes as UIPA financing remains central to the Tooele Valley Public Infrastructure District (TVPID) project — which includes a 500-megawatt data center, a truck stop, and a wastewater discharge permit that would send up to 260,000 gallons of concentrated brine per day into wetlands feeding Gilbert Bay.
“Mounting nationwide opposition has resulted in cities and counties throughout the country passing over 530 local ordinances that either ban or restrict data center construction in their jurisdiction. But Utah has not yet taken any action, and UIPA has been a big part of the problem with their tax payer subsidies. UIPA should take action now to prohibit data centers from being built in their project areas,” said Dr. Brian Moench, President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy. Environment.
UIPA says it doesn’t recruit data centers. That’s not good enough. UIPA shouldn’t allow data centers in their publicly subsidized development projects. In June, UIPA stated publicly that it “prioritizes protection of the Great Salt Lake, is not actively recruiting data centers, and does not offer incentives for data centers.” The coalition’s letter argues that statement doesn’t match the financial reality on the ground: TVPID developer Chuck Akerlow has told reporters his project “wouldn’t be possible without the incentives and financing provided by the port authority.”
“The Stratos project caught global attention for its botched public participation and approval process, prompting Governor Cox to sign an executive order meant to establish a higher bar for data center development – and promising to do better,” said Senior Organizer for the Sierra Club in Utah, Luis Miranda. “But two months later, we find ourselves with yet another unaccountable public institution that, like MIDA, uses its power to circumvent local municipal power and public processes.”We need Governor Cox to rise above lip service, and ensure that institutions like UIPA can’t be used to undermine environmental reviews and public input,” Miranda said.
The letter does not ask UIPA to exercise zoning authority it doesn’t have. Instead, it calls on the Board to use the financial leverage it already has, the same tools UIPA has used elsewhere to exclude other categories of development, to protect the lake.
“Great Salt Lake and its wetlands are in crisis and the last thing we should be doing is using public resources to enable data center development in the Great Salt Lake Basin,” said Deeda Seed with the Center for Biological Diversity. “To protect Great Salt Lake and its wetlands UIPA needs to adopt a binding policy that excludes data center financing.”
“Gambling has long been illegal in Utah. Why are we gambling today with our future? If we give them a drop, they won’t stop. Enforce Governor Cox’s executive order and save the Great Salt Lake!,” said leaders of TooeleCARES, a Tooele County based community organization.
The letter calls on the UIPA Board to:
- Adopt a binding policy excluding data center financing — through Public Infrastructure District sponsorship, project area plan approval, or Authority Infrastructure Bank loans — from any Great Salt Lake basin project area where such a facility is a stated or foreseeable use
- Apply the exclusion basin-wide and prospectively, rather than case by case
- Make wetland-mitigation funding mandatory and scaled to a project’s water intensity
- Require full disclosure of water use, cooling technology, energy source, and expected wastewater chemistry before a project area plan is adopted — not after, through a separate permitting process
- Trigger mandatory reassessment of incentive eligibility whenever a project’s actual development diverges from what was represented at adoption
- Require full beneficial-ownership disclosure for project area applicants
- Formally adopt Governor Cox’s May 2026 executive order on the lake, air and water quality, and data center transparency as binding review criteria for the Board’s own financing decisions
Background
As of this week, the Great Salt Lake’s south arm sits at approximately 4,190.8 feet — already below the 4,192-foot line the state’s own Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan identifies as the threshold for “serious adverse effects” to the lake’s ecosystem, economy, and public health, and closing in on the 4,190-foot mark where the causeway berm must engage to prevent a salinity spike in the south arm. The lake is on a downward trend heading into peak summer evaporation.
The coalition is requesting a formal response from the UIPA Board and has asked that the letter and its signatures be entered into the public record at the Board’s August 4 meeting.
The full letter and signatures are available here.