Knowledge: Utah's economy and environment will suffer if Stratos Data Center is built

Collected impacts of Stratos project exposed

Some updated on July 15, 2026

The Stratos project will have major negative impacts on the following:

• GREAT SALT LAKE, which is in such a crisis that our state's economy is predicted to collapse as the lake stays in an unhealthy condition.

• WATER in our basin will be consumed (see this article in Deseret News)

• Air pollution will increase and blow across 2.5 millions lungs downwind.  Wind Roses show that the dominant wind blows right at Ogden area from Stratos through a low set of hills with low passes.  See numbers here

• CARBON POLLUTION will increase astronomically

• Water pollution comes from many processes of this industrial project

• ECOLOGY will be degraded, impacting many living things. and especially the millions of birds that paude on migration on the lake.  They migrate through nearby.

• Scorching HEAT from using natrual gas for energy production will turn an arid sage land into a Sahara-like hyper-arid desert
• 
  

Problems with Stratos, data centers and power plants that are little discussed:

TOXIC WASTE:

• Toxic waste results from many processes and activities at the Stratos site.
• 
  
• There is the need to replace computers every few years, creating a toxic waste problem of enormous proportion.  
• This is called e-waste.  It is toxic.

ENERGY? 

• Lack of sufficient energy to power the proposed project will potentially create problems for regional energy supply.

Military claim? 

• Is there actually a military component of the project?  This is critical and some critics questions that a smidge of military land across the lake, 40-some miles away makes this Stratos project a military one.

Beyond these known risks, there is little discussion of the geologic hazards that could potentially cause construction costs to skyrocket or might damage the delicate computers of Stratos and/or threaten the explosive fuel of the power plant if they are not addressed properly by professionals

Did you know that the Stratos project would be built on a young shield volcano, in an active section of two over-lapping seismic belts, and atop liquefied deposits? All three are geologic hazards that drive up costs of construction. 

Figure 1. Dr Janecke's map of the seismic belts near the Stratos data center and selected active normal faults in red. From a draft manuscript about the Benson swarm of earthquakes. in west central Cache Valley.  Refer to figure 2 for the outline of the Stratos project.

Figure 2. Stratos Project's booster plan to plunk their delicate infrastructure in one of the most active seismic belts east of the San Andreas fault system-the Yellowstone seismic parabola. Hansel Valley and Pocatello Valley earthquakes shook this area in the last century and repeats are inevitable.  


In addition, the Stratos Project is within one of the young volcanic fields of Utah.  It is called the NW Utah Volcanic field. Even if the numerous volcanoes in the project footprint stay quiet, there could be an eruption from one of the nearby volcanic centers. 

Find out more about the Geologic Hazards that Stratos boosters overlooked at :

Tinyurl.com/StratosEarthquakesAndMORE

Volcanoes of the Stratos project area have notably fresh and active eruptive centers on top. Both shield volcanoes shown here were under the powerful destructive waves of Lake Bonneville, which rose about 30,000 years ago and evaporated into the Great Salt Lake about 13-15,000 years ago. 
Round craters and eruptive centers are so fresh that Post- or maybe syn-Bonneville eruptions explain the fresh and round craters and eruptive centers on top of these two shield volcanoes. That morphology makes future eruptions more likely.   This is an unpublished map by Dr. Susanne Janecke. Please cite this blog post and her name if you use it.

Explore more information

Screenshot of an amazing web site that is not online anymore. 
The wayback machine archived it-luckily for us.  

Find a treasure trove of information here:

 at https://tinyurl.com/STOPUTDataCenterCORRUPTION 

Thank you creator of this infographic. Weber County Women's Caucus




Data centers AND gas-powered power plants use a LOT of water.  Yet: 

Utah's water situation is in crisis.  We are in severe to extreme drought across the entire state.  95% of the state is in top three dry levels:  severe, and extreme drought.

Roughly 2000 Utahns came to have their voices heard in opposition to the Stratos Project.  their leaders disrespected them, threatened to have them arrested, and then fled their own private but televised meeting.  Does such a meeting meet the requirements of the open meetings laws?

Desiccated lakes look like this.  IT is grim.

NOTICE:  None of these MIDA people have technical or environmental or hazards training.
Call them out for approving a rushed sketch of a plan with only a miniscule (or possibly zero?) military connection. 
MIDA has been allowed to act without oversight. 
The single board meeting about Stratos revealed a shocking lack of analysis, discussion, care, or true interest in the people of Utah.
No 

environmental

 considerations came up in the meeting. 
No economic analysis came up in the meeting.
No air pollution concerns came up in the meeting.
The enormous water-guzzling nature of data centers of large size did not appear to be discussed.

Land-owners, who are likely to benefit-appeared to be the only members of the public in their very brief discussion.

MIDA built a luxury hotel using our tax moneys.  They pretended to be helping the military.  

FOLLOW THE MONEY:

Stuart Adams "just happened" to get his largest ever political donations 7 days after latest MIDA "military-support-plan-without-miltiary-contracts-or contiguous-military land" plan was approved.

See Reporting by Bryan Schott here.

GOP leader are not looking fresh as daisies vis-a-vie donors

Governor Cox:  Schott report

The bottom line.  Utah's GOP leadership hatched the project plan before they shopped it around and asked O'Leary to lead it.

Cox, Adams, Stevenson, and many others in the Utah legislature assumed that you and I would roll over to yet another scam that harms the state, steals our tax money for the SOLE benefit of insiders.

Thank you to the creator of this graphic.