Box Elder Residents Challenge 250-Acre Stratos Data Center Over Water, Wildlife and Notice
Updated
Updated · KSLTV · May 19
Box Elder Residents Challenge 250-Acre Stratos Data Center Over Water, Wildlife and Notice
11 articles · Updated · KSLTV · May 19
Howell-area residents said the proposed Stratos data center and power plant is advancing too quickly, with too little public information for nearby landowners and county leaders to assess its impact.
Two project parcels lie west and northwest of the town, where farmers and ranchers fear harm to a shared stream, the Bear River watershed and grazing land around the site.
Sage grouse leks sit just north of a smaller parcel, raising concerns that construction could disrupt protected birds' mating grounds; historical railroad markers and Spring Bay also border the broader area.
O’Leary Digital has said it would filter brackish water for the data center and send some water to the Great Salt Lake, but residents said the volumes and wider environmental effects remain unclear.
With Howell’s population under 250, opposition has centered as much on process as ecology, with locals saying they learned of the project only when it reached the Box Elder County Commission for a vote.
With locals filing a referendum, can a small Utah farming community halt the world's potentially largest data center?
Could a single $100 billion data center create a desert 'heat island' and drain the already shrinking Great Salt Lake?
As data centers demand more power, who will ultimately pay for the massive grid upgrades and soaring electricity bills in Utah?