The gigantic data center was originally proposed to be built on 40,000 acres in Box Elder County just a few miles from the Great Salt Lake. At full buildout, this data center would use twice as much energy as Utah uses each year. This would triple the state’s energy demand and will likely raise natural gas prices for Utahns already struggling through America’s affordability crisis.

The data center would also almost double Utah’s carbon emissions, exceeding the carbon emissions of Sweden and Ireland.

The project will also take water out of the Great Salt Lake Basin, which is a clear sign that Utah cannot be trusted to save the Great Salt Lake. How much water this data center will use has been hidden from the public, but data centers around the country consume massive volumes of water.

Owens Lake is just one-sixteenth the size of the Great Salt Lake, so dust mitigation at the Great Salt Lake will cost dramatically more than the $2 billion spent at Owens Lake. Constructing a dust mitigation system to mitigate the Great Salt Lake’s toxic dust could cost Utah taxpayers $20+ billion over two decades even if one ignores the costs of roadbuilding on the lakebed.

This is the most expensive alternative for our future, but it’s the one Utah leaders are pursuing. That’s because they refuse to implement more affordable solutions like phasing out tax subsidies that encourage water waste, setting real water conservation goals, and properly regulating upstream water diversions. 

Throughout 2025 and 2026, Utah legislators ran bills related to data centers, water rights, and the Great Salt Lake that created a suspiciously nice ramp for the Stratos data center which their constituents largely oppose. The timing around the unveiling of the data center and the passage of all this legislation begs the question of which legislators knew about the project and were working to get it approved before the public was given a chance to weigh in.

In August 2025, a bill was introduced which would have allowed Utah to completely dry up the North Arm of the Great Salt Lake, which represents 40% of the lake. The Stratos data center is proposed to be built suspiciously close to the North Arm. Were Utah legislators attempting to dry up the North Arm to make way for this data center and other development projects in the same area that will come after it?

Another bill that passed during the 2026 legislative session proposed to combine the water use of large data centers together to hide the water use of individual data centers from the public. Only after extensive criticism was the bill amended to provide slightly more transparency, though it didn’t go far enough as the public still doesn’t know how much water these data centers will use. 

The 2026 Legislature also passed House Bill 60, the bill to dry up the Great Salt Lake. This bill dismantled the regulations over new water right applications by shrinking the existing requirements that Utah consider impacts to public welfare and air quality, and the bill made it harder to protest the water rights in court. This is one of the clearest demonstrations that your Utah legislators may have been secretly working to sell Utah out to a Canadian billionaire.

When the Great Salt Lake is full, water covers the lakebed, thereby covering these pollutants. But when the Great Salt Lake shrinks, the lake’s dust is exposed and carried downwind toward population centers. Harmful toxins tag along with this dust, exposing people to myriad possible health problems, including asthma, cancer, strokes, birth defects, and decreased fertility rates. 

If nothing is done, this toxic dust will make Northern Utah unlivable. This failure will result in a collapse of the economy, a housing market catastrophe, and an exodus out of our beautiful state.