Formal protests start to pour in for Stratos data center's second water rights change request

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Hundreds of formal protests poured in on Wednesday after a second water rights request for the proposed Stratos data center was filed.
• The application, filed on April 28, seeks 11 square acre-feet of water, but Rob Dubuc of Friends of Great Salt Lake claims there's more to come.
• The group encourages the public to protest each future water rights request.

SALT LAKE CITY — Just hours after a second water rights change application for the proposed Stratos data center was published for public notice, hundreds of formal protests started to pour in.

The application was filed with the Utah Division of Water Rights on April 28, though the formal period for public response opened up on Wednesday morning.

"I'm encouraged. I think it's important for the public to weigh in," general counsel for Friends of Great Salt Lake Rob Dubuc said.

The organization had previously called for protests against an earlier water rights change application seeking 1,900 acre-feet of water.

This second application only asks for 11 square acre-feet, but Dubuc pointed out there's likely more to come, as he said the process for the massive project will likely be unusual.

"Usually it just involves a single water right, for a specific purpose," Dubuc said. "This is going to take putting pieces of the puzzle together in order to get the number they need."

Around 4,000 formal protests were filed against the project's earlier application before the filing was withdrawn by the developers.

Paul Palandjian, CEO of O'Leary Digital, told KSL it intends to file for the water rights again, with more information to better suit the specific project.

Dubuc is frustrated that the two applications so far have provided very little insight.

"If you look at the application, it is a cut-and-paste of the first one," Dubuc said. "There's nothing in there. There's nothing of substance in there."

While O'Leary Digital has not yet disclosed exactly how much water the project will require, it has previously said it would be less than what is currently used for farming and ranching on the same pieces of land.

Dubuc said Friends of Great Salt Lake will keep an eye out for later water rights change applications and encourage people to protest each one.

"We are going to alert people to that and encourage them to participate, to show their concern and do it in a meaningful way, which is to file a protest," he said.

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Mike Anderson

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Mike Anderson often doubles as his own photographer, shooting and editing most of his stories. He came to KSL in April 2011 after working for several years at various broadcast news outlets.