HANSEN VALLEY, Utah — Hardly anything disturbs the peace in Hansel Valley these days beyond the chirping of birds and the occasional semitruck passing by on Interstate 84.
So Utah State University Physics Professor Robert Davies can scarcely imagine the industrial future that could lie in this vast space.
“That place is occupied by amazing living systems," he said. “Projects like this go into environments like this and scrape the living systems right off the face of the earth.”
According to Dr. Davies, the energy that will go into the Stratos project more than doubles Utah’s usage as a state.
“They’re proposing a nine gigawatt… that’s a nine-billion-watt… facility. That’s about two-and-a-half New York City’s of electrical consumption combined," he said.
While the governor supported what’s been branded as a critical military mission, the potential impacts of this campus have brought on great public scrutiny.
Rob Dubuc serves as counsel for Friends of The Great Salt Lake and is protesting a water right in the valley that's applied to change uses from agricultural to industrial for the proposed data center.
“If you read the change application, there’s pretty much nothing in there of substance," he said. “There’s misunderstanding on what constitutes Great Salt Lake. A groundwater aquifer that feeds into the lake is absolutely critical - to the lake. You can’t have it all, choices have to be made. Are we going to save the lake or not? It takes every drop."
With another critical meeting looming Monday, Davies hopes the county’s commissioners take the time to look at the downstream effects a project of this complexity and scale could have.
“This is a private enterprise that is coming in to extract from our natural wealth and pipe it out of the state…and leave us with a few crumbs.”
