Second water rights request withdrawn for embattled Box Elder County data center proposal

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The entity behind the second request for water rights for the controversial Box Elder County data center project has withdrawn the application.
The entity behind an earlier water rights request withdrew its application earlier this month.
The data center plans, touted as key to national security, have come under fire from some who worry about water use by the facility.

SALT LAKE CITY — A second request for water rights for the proposed Box Elder County data center has been withdrawn, a month after it was submitted.

The notice by the water rights holder is dated May 22, but it wasn't uploaded to the Utah Division of Water Rights website until Wednesday. The filing by Murray Hollow L.C. of Holladay doesn't offer an explanation for the action; it just requests that the application be withdrawn.

"There's no reason given at all," said Audra Sorensen, spokeswoman for the division. Water officials acknowledged receipt of the request in their own succinct filing, which offered no additional details about the turn of events.

An earlier request by Bar H Ranch of Bear River City in Box Elder County for water rights for the data center proposal — which has prompted strong and vocal opposition from many — was withdrawn earlier this month. Bar H said at the time that it planned to resubmit the request.

The proposed data center and power-generation facility has unleashed strong opposition, in part due to concerns about the water it would use. The second water rights request by Murray Hollow, for 11 acre feet per year, had generated nearly 700 formal protest letters before it was pulled. The much larger Bar H request, for 1,900 acre feet per year, generated around 3,800 protests.

Deeda Seed, of the Center for Biological Diversity, a fierce critic of the plans, said those protests had an impact. "The developers are not withdrawing these applications because they changed their minds. They are withdrawing them because your protests are working and because they would rather refile quietly than face a public record that documents this community's opposition," she said in a public Facebook post.

Seed seeks a study of the aquifer in the Hansel Valley, the project area, before granting of any water rights for industrial use and will be monitoring for new water rights applications.

Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary and O'Leary Digital are the moving forces behind the data center plans, touted by proponents as key to national security and an economic development driver. Over the long haul, the data center facilities would be accompanied by development of up to 9 gigawatts of power-generation capacity to serve it.

While critics worry about water use and other environmental impacts, project proponents have said they plan to use advanced technology that minimizes water use. They've also stressed that the plans would face scrutiny by Utah regulators and have to abide by Utah environmental guidelines.

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