Family near Box Elder County data center worries about water quality going back into the lake

TREMONTON — There is a lot of family history at the Great Salt Lake that could be interrupted by the new Stratos Data Center. At 13 years old, Rhonda Anderson Lauritzen was swimming at the north end of the lake. “We used to camp here. The water was right up to the shore and it was lovely,” Lauritzen said. “Now you have to walk 4.5 miles to reach the water." Lauritzen has watched the water recede for at least a decade, and her family’s history has been tied to the lake for much longer. Since 1969, the Anderson family’s company, Mineral Resources International, has extracted minerals from the Great Salt Lake. Bruce Anderson, who is the current CEO and owner of the company, said it uses a small portion of the Great Salt Lake. “We pump minerals from pond to pond, and it gets more and more concentrated,” Anderson said. Once the minerals have gone through four ponds that are five acres in size, the solution is ready for products. Anderson said the company creates electrolyte and other mineral products for hundreds of businesses worldwide. But now its ponds are empty, and the Andersons can only use the south side of the lake. “We want to use this facility. This is our preferred location because it’s pristine, it’s the perfect spot for us. But now we can’t use it today,” Lauritzen said. As the water receded over the years, the Andersons built a canal to reach it. Anderson also signed an agreement to reduce the company's water rights use each year depending on how full the lake is. "We are currently at a 50% use of the Great Salt Lake water rights,” Anderson said. Beginning in 2027, Anderson said the company will only be able to use 30% of its total water rights. All of this comes before concerns surrounding the Stratos Data Center approved for the land next to the company's property. In Hansel Valley, the Stratos Project plans to use irrigation water through acquired property rights. Developers said they are not taking water directly from the Great Salt Lake. Still, Lauritzen worries about nearby salt wells that feed into the Great Salt Lake. Once the property rights are acquired Lauritzen wonders if those salt wells will then feed the data center instead. “We’re concerned not only with how much, but what are they going to do to it,” she said. Lauritzen wonders what substances would remain in water returned to the lake from the data center and how they could affect the minerals and the brine shrimp. “People directly consume this product,” Lauritzen said. “If they put in chemicals, they might say they cleaned it, but those chemicals don’t come out.” The Andersons have filed water quality and quantity protests against the data center. “We are not opposed to data centers per se,” Anderson said. “It just needs to happen in the right place.” The family said they hope to restore not only the Great Salt Lake but their family legacy. “This is my home and I’m going to fight for my home,” Lauritzen said. “That gives me hope.”

Read more: Hundreds gather at Capitol to rally against Box Elder data center proposal

This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL's editorial standards are upheld.

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