Conservation groups push back against proposed water treatment plant near Great Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in May issued an executive order in response to public pushback against data center development, requiring state agencies to prioritize protecting water resources, including the Great Salt Lake.

The order also directed the state to protect air quality, mitigate the impacts to wildlife, and ensure any data center developments “align with Utah’s long-term interests,” among other things.

“Utahns have raised important questions about the impact large data centers could have on water, air quality, utility rates and quality of life,” Cox said in May. “Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously. This executive order establishes a higher bar for how these projects are evaluated and ensures that economic strength and environmental stewardship go hand in hand.”

Now, Utah conservation and advocacy groups say the executive order is facing its first true test in the form of a wastewater discharge permit proposed for Tooele County they say would threaten the Great Salt Lake and the species that call the lake and its wetlands home.

On Monday, the Utah Division of Water Quality is hosting a public hearing at 195 N. 1950 West beginning at 5:45 p.m., where members of the public, advocates and other Great Salt Lake stakeholders are expected to testify.

What’s the worry?

According to the hearing notice, the Tooele Valley Public Infrastructure District is proposing the wastewater treatment plant located near the Burmester Road exit off I-80 in Tooele County.

The facility is being proposed to treat groundwater and provide potable water for the Utah Inland Port Authority’s Interstate Business Park, which, according to its website, is “strategically designed” for data centers and manufacturing and logistics operations.

“There has never been an environmental issue that has galvanized opposition from people across the country and across the political spectrum like AI data centers have,” Brian Moench, Utah Physicians for a Health Environment board chair, said in a statement. “Recognizing that, Gov. Cox vaguely suggested the state would take action to protect Utahns. But the pending approval of this permit indicates nothing has changed. Utah citizens should be outraged and demand that the state stop sacrificing our air, water, and quality of life to the demands of Big Tech billionaires.”

As part of the treatment process, the facility will discharge up to 260,000 gallons per day of concentrated reverse osmosis reject water, or industrial brine — a highly concentrated salt solution — “flowing through an existing drainage channel to the transitional waters and Gilbert Bay of the Great Salt Lake,” said the hearing notice.

This is where the main concern of the conservation group lies, as they claim the water would be discharged at zero dilution, with no water-quality baseline ever established.

More specifically, conservation groups say the area impacted by the proposed development contains thousands of acres of Great Salt Lake wetlands and is concerningly close to the open water of Gilbert Bay.

Heather Dove, board member and conservation chair of Great Salt Lake Audubon, said the project could accelerate habitat loss already faced by species around the lake.

“Shorebirds and other waterbirds, for which the Great Salt Lake is world-renowned, have steadily lost habitat around the lake in the last 20 years, due largely to inland ports and other developments. The wetlands and shorelines that are critically important for staging, foraging and nesting are becoming less and less available,” Dove said in a statement. “Permitting this facility would run counter to the state’s commitment to conserving water for the lake, to managing salinity in the south arm and to protecting our environment and wildlife.”

A draft of the permit can be found here.