WORDS Have Power
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| DHS federal agents are trained to behave exactly the way they are, killing innocent people and covering up their crimes. Listen to the Left Hook interview Jenn Bunn, former Border patrol agent and current whistle blower. Artist name and link |
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| Find out more at the source https://www.stopthepollutingport.org/proposed-tooele-inland-port |
It's been a brutal few weeks for Utah. The state is in a declared drought emergency after the warmest winter and lowest snowpack on record, wildfires have burned more than 357,000 acres statewide, and on July 8 a dust plume off the Great Salt Lake pushed Wasatch Front air quality to hazardous levels, carrying arsenic and other metals from the exposed lakebed.
This is what a drying Great Salt Lake looks like. It's the backdrop for a permit decision that would add more industrial demand on a closed water basin and more pollution headed toward the wetlands the lake has left.
Please join us at a public hearing in two weeks that determines whether this damaging development will move forward.
The Utah Division of Water Quality has scheduled a hearing on a proposed permit that would authorize 252,000 gallons per day of industrial brine discharge—reject water from a reverse osmosis system serving a data center campus in Tooele Valley—into wetlands that drain directly to Great Salt Lake.
The discharge route enters an actively monitored Intermountain West Shorebird Survey area on the south shore of Great Salt Lake.
This industrial development is being made possible through public financing provided by the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA), which is modeled after the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA).
PUBLIC HEARING: UPDESPermit UT0026409
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Come to the hearing, in person or online. Showing up builds the public record and sends a signal about who is paying attention.
To speak, sign in when you arrive. Two minutes is enough. Say you oppose the permit, name the wetlands and the birds, the cumulative impacts that this enables and ask DWQ to deny or substantially revise it.
Send a written comment by July 27. Email wqcomments@utah.gov, reference permit UT0026409. A sentence or two is fine. Your words matter more than you think.
The brine discharge contains arsenic and will enter Class 5E transitional wetlands with zero dilution
DWQ reclassified the receiving water without public notice
No pre-discharge baseline monitoring has been conducted
The full antidegradation analysis is incomplete
No air quality permit has been filed for the 500-megawatt gas power plant that would serve the data center campus
Bottom line: The Utah Division of Water Quality should not finalize this permit until the cumulative impacts, downstream protections, and real-world testing have occurred.
This is $234 million in public subsidy, UIPA tax increment financing plus tax-exempt bonds through two Public Infrastructure Districts, going to a development that begins with a diesel truck stop next to a shorebird wetland and ends with a gas-fired data center the size of a small power plant.
The hearing is the public’s opportunity to put that on the record. Please join us!
For more info go here.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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Screenshot of an amazing web site that is not online anymore. |
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| Thank you creator of this infographic. Weber County Women's Caucus Data centers AND gas-powered power plants use a LOT of water. Yet: |
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 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.
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| Desiccated lakes look like this. IT is grim. |
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| 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
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 |
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| 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. |
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| Thank you to the creator of this graphic. |
A brief overview of the offices that people are running for.
Cache Water District
https://cachewaterdistrict.com/
The Cache Water District serves to coordinate the planning and facilitating the long-term conservation, development, protection, distribution, management and stabilization of water rights and water supplies for domestic, irrigation, power, manufacturing, municipal, recreation and other beneficial uses, including the natural stream environment, in a cost-effective way to meet the needs of the residents and growing population of Cache County. The Water district board consists of 11 elected members:
Cache County Council
https://www.cachecounty.gov/countycouncil/
Cache County has a county executive-council form of government. The executive - sometimes called the “county mayor” is an elected official who oversees the operations of the various offices within the county, and is responsible for making sure employees and offices operate effectively, fairly, and legally. The Cache County Council consists of seven elected members, each elected from a district. The county council passes laws and ordinances, develops and passes the annual county budget, and approves policies and procedures of how the county is operated. We can think of the council as the ‘rule-makers’ of the county, and the council members are typically the first person to talk to when a citizen wants to discuss how the county operates. Cache and Salt Lake Counties use this form of government, and it creates a governing body with more representation to manage large counties. The severn members of the council represent 3 districts that encompass Logan, the North, Northeast, South, and Southeast districts.
Utah State Legislature
https://house.utleg.gov/about-the-house/
The Utah House of Representatives is composed of 75 people elected to two-year terms to represent equal population (about 44,000 people) districts in the state. Utah has a citizen-led state legislature and Senate, meaning the representative and senators are ‘part-time’ legislators, and manage their own businesses, careers, and family roles as well as acting as our representatives. The Legislature meets annually in a General Session, which starts in mid-January and lasts 45 calendar days Special Sessions may be called at any time during the year either by the Governor or by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. The state constitution defines the rolls and responsibilities of the legislature, which include, along with the state senate:
Set the Budget: In 2026, the state budget is $ 31.6 billion. The legislature decides how state money is spent on things like education, roads, public safety, state parks, and licensing of professions and businesses.
Establishes taxes, tax rates, and policies: The legislature considers and passes laws to collect or change state taxes.
Make Laws: Propose, debate, and vote on bills that affect state policy that affect the citizens of Utah.
Committees: In order to get information on changes to laws, or enacting new laws, legislators meet in small groups to review specific topics, and hear testimony from state officials, and citizens, regarding the possible impacts of the laws. This work takes place, before br bills are voted on by the full House, and people from around the state may testify remotely.
Check the Governor: Vote on whether to override vetoed laws.
U. S. House of Representatives
Often referred to as the U. S. Congress, this is the ‘lower’ legislative body established in the U. S. Constitution. Each representative or congressperson represents a district of about 761,000 people, and are elected for two-year terms. A congressperson’s roles and duties include representation, legislation, constituent service and communication. As specified in the constitution, the House of Representatives primary duties are lawmaking - to consider legislation that determines the laws of the country; to oversee the financial and commerce powers of the government, which includes budgeting, taxes, borrowing, and the control of the national currency - it creates laws to collect taxes and raise revenue (all bills that raise money must start in the House); and oversight and investigation, where they can hold meetings to question government officials about how programs are run, and use their power of checks and balances to ensure the executive branch follows the law and spends taxpayer money properly. The House of Representatives has the sole power to formally accuse and impeach a federal official of wrongdoing. The offices of congressional representatives are housed in Washington D. C. and in several local offices in their districts, and this is where people can go to ask questions or get help with issues regarding federal programs, grants, and policies.
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| Aerial view of nearly gone Great Salt Lake from Deseret News interview highlighted here: https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/07/knowledge-great-salt-lake-collapse-is.html |
NOTES: GSL Interfaith Action (GSLIA) - monthly meeting - Wednesday, July 1⋅7:00 – 8:30pm
If you have changes or additions to the minutes, or thoughts on the topics, please let us know.
We appreciate your input!
Becky Burrage and Joan Gregory
1. Attendees - Micah Mahaney(Mt Olympus Presbyterian), Mike Maxwell (LDS Earth Stewardship), Becky Burrage (Holladay United Church of Christ), Joan Gregory (First Unitarian Church of SLC), Helene (Wasatch Minyan), Susanne – Cache Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Logan; Patrick Belmont (Water scientist, Candidate for Utah State Legislature to represent Logan and Richmond, District 3); Rebecca Hunt (Unity Church)
2. Update on the opposition movement to the proposed DHS Immigration Facility next to Great Salt Lake (with negative environmental outcomes likely)
Please read and consider signing this the Utah Values Coalition's Statement of Utah Values – Protecting Our Community from Harmful Detention Centers. https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org
List of faith-based communities and faith leaders who have signed on: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/about-us and Community based organizations
Letters from faith leaders are highlighted: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/letters
You may ask: Wasn't there just a NYTimes article saying: ICE Spent $700 Million on 7 Warehouses. Now It Wants to Get Rid of Them. (Gift Article)
Yes, that is positive news worth celebrating and we are hopeful that this detention center will revert back to warehouse/industrial use. However, until we know that it is not being sold to a private prison contractor, and no other detention center is being planned, we are proceeding with active opposition. Our aim is to protect our vulnerable neighbors and friends for as long as DHS/ICE continues its operations.
Who is the Utah Values Coalition? We are members of the Salt Lake community and we are Utahns who are coming together to say: we have values here in Utah. What is happening by locating an ICE Warehouse Detention Center here goes totally against our Utah values. Those values were the basis of the Utah Compact for Immigration, signed in 2010 and reaffirmed in 2019, which committed Utah's leaders to a set of principles rooted in humanity, fiscal responsibility, the rule of law, and the well-being of families and communities. Those principles did not expire. They are the Utah Way.
We are dedicated to uniting voices across Utah to oppose the proposed mega warehouse ICE detention facility. Our mission is to protect our communities and advocate for humane alternatives that reflect our shared values of compassion and justice.
If you agree, you too can be part of this Coalition by signing onto this statement: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/ You may sign on as an individual Utahn, or you may sign on as a Utah faith-based community, community-based organization, or business. Feel free to use this QR code and flyer and this email if you would like to share this sign-on opportunity with others.
We look forward to seeing you join this effort. Once we have a significant number of signatures, we plan to deliver this statement as a letter to Utah Governor Cox and to other Utah elected officials and leaders in our Utah communities.
Questions: utahvaluescoalition@gmail.com - Joan M. Gregory, Convener, Utah Values Coalition
Flyers that you can use to share this action with your congregation: https://tinyurl.com/UVC-QRCodeFlyer
3. Update on the Tooele data center next to GSL.
A Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) backed industrial development in Tooele Valley, enabled by more than $240 million in taxpayer-backed infrastructure financing, has applied for a state permit to discharge concentrated brine from a reverse osmosis water treatment plant into wetlands just 1.6 miles from Great Salt Lake. The discharge would flow directly into Gilbert Bay with no enforceable limits on salt, chloride, or arsenic.
Website for background information from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment: https://www.uphe.org/2026/06/16/help-stop-another-data-center-proposal-tooele/
The comment deadline is July 8. Submitting a comment is straightforward, and every comment matters. Here’s what to do: Send an email to wqcomments@utah.gov Use “Permit UT0026409” as your subject line. In your comment, tell the Division of Water Quality why this permit should not be approved as written, cite the lack of limits on harmful pollutants, the threat to wetlands and Great Salt Lake, and the failure to account for cumulative water impacts in an already over-stressed basin.
More resources if you want to dive deep into this:
-- Listen to Dr. Brian Moench's description of the situation & instructions: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/skdq7r7lzPs
-- The Wrong Place for a Data Center – this is a guide on how taxpayer subsidies are funding industrial development on the edge of Great Salt Lake – Comment Period Open NOW, Closes July 8th.
-- Laws that Hand Utah to Corporations – kiWhat MIDA and UIPA Do – And Why they MUST be Repealed: background information about MIDA and UIPA
-- Tooele Inland Ports: A Data Center on the Shore of Great Salt Lake
-- Patrick Belmont (Logan) - published a piece in Deseret News on the BE data center: https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2026/05/09/the-issue-is-bigger-than-the-data-center/
Many of those same points will likely apply to Tooele.
-- Still hoping to get the faith-based community to speak out at any of these press conferences. The more we can show more diversity in advocacy, the better. Mike made the point that more centrist and conservative leaning folks need to be attracted to speak out about the issues
-- Maybe something we in GSLIA could do here on Pioneer Day?
4. Discussion about distributing our water conservation flyer and GSLIA information.
A Practical Guide to using Less Water for the Benefit of GSL: Outdoor water Stewardship for Faith Communities. See the attachments for the half-page and full-page flyer versions (print-at-home) and the document itself.
5. How to be involved with the August Legislative Interim Session. https://growtheflowutah.org/legislative-outreach/ Also: https://le.utah.gov/ Interesting: https://le.utah.gov/interim/2026/InterimSchedule.pdf <- Notice the schedule of national conferences that this Interim schedule highlights, in particular The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), July 22-24, 2026. This year’s conference aligns with the States 250 initiative, focusing on state-level policies and America250. Often when you hear that a bill is being introduced in legislatures across the country, it is an ALEC bill. Their tag line is: Limited Government • Free Markets • Federalism.
7. Discussion about organizing another Our Sacred Lake event at The Cathedral of the Madeleine. Is this something we want to do again? In the past we have done 3 different events there. Greg asked about an annual event – OK if not as intensive amount of work. How do we get the message of OUR SACRED GREAT SALT LAKE across. We have shown films, done it at the Cathedral. What could we do that would be interesting, touch their hearts, let them realize that the lake is sacred and we need to be stewards of it.
- Mike said Clive Romney has new GSL music he offered to share at an event. (see suggested videos under Announcements).
- Michah: Considering the reverence – representatives from many of the tribes or ceremonial dance. Last year – we had Carl Moore – prayer to the 4 directions. This is a video of last year’s event:
Susanne J. shared this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK51GxDBDjg. This is a great 30-minute interview about the GSL-Abbott and Romney are interviewed.
There is more information about this interview in the following blog post: https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/07/knowledge-great-salt-lake-collapse-is.html
Trips - considering a field trip?? 1.5 hr trip. to Spiral Jetty or Antelope Island to see the new film.
At a park, could you get groups who have direct interaction with GSL (example: work on phragmites removal)– what is important to them to do in GSL – these groups always need volunteers to go out and do things
8. Announcements/volunteering opportunities and events
https://growtheflowutah.org/events/
Films available (per Helene):
- "The Lake," originally premiered at Sundance this past February, will be screened on July 18 at 7:00 pm in SLC at Utah Film Center (Broadway Theater) and on July 19 at 1:00 pm in the Jim Santy Auditorium in the Park City Library.
- "Secrets of Great Salt Lake," is being shown at Antelope Island Visitor center in its new theatre. Not open to the public yet but Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, on July 16 is sponsoring a lecture at 10:00 am followed by the film screening at 10:30 am. It is free, but registration with Osher is required.
(There is a form to fill out on the Antelope Island website if you would like to reserve a time to show the film to "your group.")
9. Leasing unused water-rights in Logan – Susanne said they have not pushed on the GSL issue before, but now it has become a local Logan issue – many more people interested in getting involved for GSL – add the article in our minutes – things that pertain to their issue – comment on draft environmental impact statement – articles and publicity – urge to withdraw this whole plan . We will post ways to become involved in this issue on this website when we learn of opportunities.
https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/06/knowledge-what-does-logan-river.html - https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/06/18/cache-valleys-little-logan-river/
