Salt Lake City adopts emergency water ordinance that also complicates ICE facility

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s capital city is seeking to cut down on nonresidential water consumption, but the measure might fend off the development of an immigrant detention center on the city’s west side.

The Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance amendment that caps any new nonresidential development that consumes or uses at least 200,000 gallons of potable water per day on average for at least the next 180 days, before a long-term ordinance might extend that further.

It comes as the city expects a sub-60% snowpack runoff this spring, but city leaders say it would also prevent the development of a large-scale facility like a detention center. A 7,500-person detention facility on the city’s west side would likely use 1 million to 2 million gallons of water every day, said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.

“As mayor, a primary responsibility I have is to ensure residents have access to clean water, reliable utilities and safe infrastructure,” she said in a statement before the vote. “Put simply, a potential high-occupancy facility interferes with those needs.”

Mendenhall initiated the ordinance proposal on Monday, less than a week after ordering the city to return to the second phase of its water shortage plan. It calls on residents, businesses and institutions in its service area to voluntarily conserve indoor and outdoor water, while all local, county, and state government facilities will be required to reduce their irrigation and indoor water use by at least 10%.

The City Council briefly held an informational meeting over the ordinance proposal after a lengthy closed session with multiple city attorneys on Tuesday, which adds measures for nonresidential users.

Record-breaking heat over the past two weeks has worsened the city’s water outlook by quickly melting an already record-low snowpack, said Laura Briefer, director of the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. The creeks it manages, which account for about 50% to 60% of the city’s supply, were projected to peak at 29% and 76% of their normal levels this year before the snowmelt.

At the same time, the acquisition of a large warehouse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has raised concerns among city leaders, who have opposed it. ICE bought a 24.9-acre parcel containing an 833,000-square-foot warehouse west of the Salt Lake City International Airport earlier this month, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security subsequently confirmed plans to build a detention facility in the city.

A “high-occupancy facility” as proposed by ICE, she worries, would potentially exacerbate concerns about the availability of water brought on by dry conditions, Mendenhall said.

Salt Lake City Council members agreed, saying the situation is dire now, and such a facility wouldn’t help.

“It’s all connected,” Council Chairman Alejandro Puy told KSL before the vote. “We are in drought. … The city has made quite a bit of changes in our (water ordinances over the past few years) to limit high-water uses and uses that might not be compatible with our environment.”

The City Council will work to make the ordinance permanent later this year, he added, explaining that all entities, including the federal government, must comply with the city’s water situation.

Mendenhall sent a letter to acting ICE director Todd Lyons last week, requesting a meeting over the city’s concerns with the project. Several residents, including some state legislators, attended Tuesday’s meeting to express their displeasure with the proposed ICE facility.

Gov. Spencer Cox, on the other hand, has supported the new facility. He said last week that Utah has needed an ICE facility for some time, and this would help with local immigration enforcement.

“It’s something we need to get right,” he added. “We’ve reached out to the administration to let them know that we want to work with them on whatever that looks like.”

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