A look at what’s inside and around Box Elder County’s proposed Stratos data center site

HOWELL, Box Elder — With a population of under 250, homeowners around Howell tend to live far apart, most of them owning or working on farms and ranches.

People like Travis Johnson are worried that plans for a proposed massive data center and power plant could be moving too fast, without giving people and Box Elder County leaders enough time to truly understand its potential impact on the area. Two patches of the proposed project area sit to the west and northwest of the town.

“I just don’t think it’s good … for the environment,” Johnson said. “But I just don’t know a lot about it. I wish they’d at least get with people and give us more information on what it’s going to bring, what the bottom line is, what their goal is.”

About a mile across town, Neil Thompson shared similar concerns.

“They were sneaky about it,” Thompson said. “Snowville and us have one little stream. The Bear River is used from Wyoming, clear down to here, and I just don’t want it ruined.”

Just to the north of a smaller parcel of land that would be used for the project sits a set of Sage Grouse leks. Some sportsmen shared concerns with KSL about how the neighboring construction could impact the mating grounds of the protected bird species. The project area itself is composed mostly of grazing land for area ranches. Representatives with O’Leary Digital have told KSL that they would filter brackish water, using some for the data center, while sending some down into the Great Salt Lake. The amounts of either, however, are not yet clear.

To the south of the larger parcels of land for the project are some historical markers for the transcontinental railroad, and the dry northern end of Great Salt Lake, known as Spring Bay.

Another Howell farmer and rancher, Arthur Douglas, added his frustrations about how very few people knew about the project until it was brought before the Box Elder County Commission for a vote.

“I think they did wrong,” Douglas said of the county seemingly getting short notice of the project. “They said they didn’t have to because that ground ain’t zoned out there. To me, that’s a doggone poor excuse for the fact that we couldn’t be notified and have a good meeting about it.”