Box Elder County Approves Stratos Project Data Center Despite Water, Energy, Environmental Disputes

Box Elder County commissioners unanimously approved plans for the Stratos Project, a 40,000-acre data center in northern Utah’s Hansel Valley, and the decision quickly triggered disputes over energy, water, and environmental impacts.

“Box Elder County commissioners on May 4 unanimously approved plans for a 40,000-acre data center in northern Utah’s Hansel Valley”

Deseret News

The project is described as requiring 9 gigawatts of energy to help power artificial intelligence, cloud computing and national security, with power expected to be generated onsite and an initial phase-one permit granting a center covering fewer than 2,000 acres.

Deseret News

Supporters say the center will use a closed-loop system for cooling to preserve water, while the project’s developers, including “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, have put $20 million into the project and expect it to cost investors more than $100 billion by the time it is finished.

Gov. Spencer Cox defended the county commissioners’ decision, writing on Friday in an X post that Utah must remain a place where people can innovate “while also protecting our land, air, water and way of life,” and the Military Installation Development Authority and county commissioners were described as approving only one phase at a time.

In a separate account of the same approval, the Guardian said the Stratos footprint would cover more than 40,000 acres over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah and that the facility will require about 9GW of power.

Opposition to the Stratos Project included public demonstrations and formal protests, and the Guardian reported that thousands of objections were lodged by Utah residents before the county commissioners approved the plan.

Sierra Club’s Utah chapter director Franque Bains said, “At a time when the Great Salt Lake is already in crisis, approving a project that will consume water and energy at this scale is irresponsible and dangerous,” while O’Leary told Fox News, “I don’t think there’s a bigger site in the world than this.”

Fortune

The Guardian also described how O’Leary used social media to argue that “We’re not gonna drain the Great Salt Lake. That’s ridiculous,” and it reported that a group calling itself the Box Elder Accountability Referendum filed an application for a referendum to reverse the commissioners’ approval.

Fortune reported that residents sought a referendum after the vote, and it said the Box Elder County attorney is reviewing whether the application is viable and that it would require more than 5,000 signatures from residents across the county to be put to a vote.

In a separate local account focused on negotiations, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Box Elder County officials asked the developer for $16.2 million up front to cover expenses, including more than $14 million allocated to public safety and emergency services, and that MIDA pushed back to spread payments over three years.

Beyond the initial approval, the sources describe a continuing permitting fight tied to water and energy claims, including disputes over whether the project would harm the Great Salt Lake and how cooling would be handled.

“Box Elder County commissioners just greenlit one of the most controversial tech projects in Utah history”

Gadget Review

The Guardian reported that environmentalists warned Stratos could imperil the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, including a critical migratory bird habitat, and it quoted Franque Bains saying Utahns want to see the Great Salt Lake restored, not stripped.

It also cited an impact analysis that expected the project to raise the state’s planet-heating pollution by about 50% and attributed temperature effects to a physics professor at Utah State University, with Rob Davies saying, “The thermal load from the proposed Stratos project is extreme.”

The Deseret News described how concerns about air quality, water and electricity were raised by residents and national groups, and it quoted Ford Copple of the Sutherland Institute saying, “AI has the potential to advance human flourishing,” and that “we need to find a balanced regulatory approach to bring these two things together.”

Meanwhile, the Deseret News also reported that the project is backed by Kevin O’Leary and that House Speaker Mike Schultz said he wasn’t part of a reported meeting, telling the Deseret News on Tuesday, “Yeah, I wasn’t part of that.”