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Salt Lake airport plans to sell nearly 1,000 acres of wetlands. Bird advocates worry about what could come next.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wetland by the Great Salt Lake is photographed Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, from an aerial tour provided by EcoFlight.
and Wildlife Service, and Great Salt Lake wetlands face increasing development pressure from encroaching data centers and inland port projects. The state’s purchase price for the airport wetland property will likely land at $4.1 million based on...
October 1, 2026

Is Utah really exporting most of its alfalfa overseas?

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake is seen from the Eccles Wildlife Education Center in Farmington, Monday, April 13, 2026.
attack. Meanwhile, lawmakers and state agencies support seemingly contradictory projects like massive data centers and inland port industrial developments near the lake’s shore. Does Utah want to dam the lake’s largest tributary? (Trent Nelson | The...
September 20, 2026

Why Salt Lake City is seeking to sell over 950 acres near its airport to the state

Three Meadowlarks sit on a fence in an area near one of the runways at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Dec. 31, 2024. The airport’s wildlife mitigation team is working hard to minimize strikes. Three Meadowlarks sit on a fence in an area near one of the runways at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Dec. 31, 2024. The airport’s wildlife mitigation team is working hard to minimize strikes. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
and state have explored more "buffers" between Salt Lake City development and its namesake lake. For instance, the Utah Inland Port Authority announced in July that it will direct $7.5 million toward land conservation funding this year. "This is an area...
September 12, 2026

Concerns swirl over a developer’s push for a Tooele Valley data center, but plans are on pause

The Utah Inland Port Authority’s Tooele Valley Project Area is pictured with a view of a new road and rail line leading into Grantsville in September 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Utah Inland Port Authority)
Letter signed by 1,100 demands Utah Inland Port Authority refuse to finance a project area that could include a potential data center. Port officials say they’re not slated to consider that any time soon – if at all — since Tooele County has paused...
September 11, 2026

After a slow start, Utah is upgrading its system to track Great Salt Lake dust

Pierce Wratten, an environmental scientist with the Utah Department of Air Quality, swaps out the filters on an air quality monitoring station at Great Salt Lake State Park in Magna on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Although not a part of the Utah Dust Observation and Research Network, the station is similar to those that are. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
themselves from breathing in the dust, on top of other sources of pollution such as industrial activity within the Inland Port Authority’s jurisdiction and nearby freeways. “Now I’m like ‘Oh, and by the way, let me add to your entire level of concerns...
August 12, 2026

Utah inland port donates $2.5M to Great Salt Lake, but critics say it isn't enough

Great Salt Lake water levels currently sit almost 7 feet below the healthy minimum. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Utah Inland Port Authority is contributing $2.5 million to help preserve shoreline along the Great Salt Lake. During a Wednesday news conference on the lake's southeast shore, the state agency announced funds will go to the Utah Department of...
July 29, 2026

Utahns speak out as yet another data center is planned near the Great Salt Lake

(Utah Department of Environmental Quality) Dozens of Utahns attend a public hearing hosted by the Division of Water Quality to oppose a water discharge permit for the Tooele Valley inland port and data center project on July 27, 2026.
Tooele Valley project is backed by the Utah Inland Port Authority, but residents worry about pollutants going into the lake. Note to readers • This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit...
July 28, 2026

Concern about data center impacts on Great Salt Lake grows, now for Tooele project’s wastewater

Opponents outnumbered supporters of a proposed shipping, manufacturing and data center hub near the Great Salt Lake’s southern shore during a public hearing held on Monday, July 27 by the Utah Division of Water Quality. (Courtesy of Dave Noriega/Utah Department of Environmental Quality)
site and terminated its discharge permit. Meta is appealing the citation. Ben Hart, executive director of the Utah Inland Port Authority, said the authority’s involvement with the project has focused on transportation within a 600-acre portion of the...
July 28, 2026

Conservation groups oppose proposed water treatment plant near Great Salt Lake

Lorena Bush holds a NO DATA CENTER sign during a public hearing in Salt Lake City on Monday. Opponents are concerned a permit would authorize the discharge of up to 260,000 gallons per day of concentrated industrial brine. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
proposed to treat groundwater and provide potable water for the Interstate Business Park, which operates within the Utah Inland Port Authority's Tooele Valley Project Area. The business park's website notes that it's "strategically designed" for data...
July 27, 2026

Utah plans to buy, preserve more land on the south side of the Great Salt Lake

Joel Ferry, commissioner of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources, addresses reporters near the southeast shore of the Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (Ashley Detrick/Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office)
to help protect it from any further encroaching development. They announced a new $2.5 million contribution from the Utah Inland Port Authority toward the effort on Wednesday, holding a news conference on the marshland property of a duck hunting club...
July 16, 2026

Utah inland port pledges $7.5M to Great Salt Lake 'buffer,' seeks to improve water use

Wetlands of the Great Salt Lake and industrial properties located on 2200 West in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. The Utah Inland Port Authority announced new funding and partnerships that seek to improve the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
Rudy Duck Club as various shorebirds chirped around him. That's why he's thrilled about a new partnership with the Utah Inland Port Authority that seeks to preserve the lake's wetlands and shoreline, protecting them from future growth. The port...
July 15, 2026

What to know about the money flowing to help the Great Salt Lake

Lee Creek flows through mudflats into the Great Salt Lake near Magna on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
weeds, Dreyfous said. Birds take flight as members of the Rudy Duck Club take journalists and representatives of the Utah Inland Port on a tour of wetlands on the edge of the Great Salt Lake northwest of Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Photo...
April 23, 2026

Hundreds pack Iron County hearing as residents voice concerns over proposed AI data center

Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News A crowd estimated to be at least 350 people fills the upper rooms of the Heritage Center for an Iron County Planning Commission meeting featuring a public hearing on a proposed data center, Cedar City, Utah, March 5, 2026.
also pointed to language in the project materials suggesting the development could eventually seek inclusion in the Utah Inland Port Authority. Financial projections submitted with the proposal estimate the project could reach a total build-out value of...
March 10, 2026

5th annual ‘Rally to Save Our Great Salt Lake’ makes a splash on Capitol Hill

Demonstrators call for action to save the drying Great Salt Lake in a rally at the Utah State Capitol on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Will Ruzanski/Utah News Dispatch)
lot more from the legislature.” “We can’t save the lake if we’re cutting off the wetlands with developments from the Utah Inland Port Authority,” she said. “We can’t save the lake if we continue spraying toxic pesticides across it.” Public health and...
February 5, 2026

SLCo Council rejects zoning change over Great Salt Lake wetland concerns

(Fox 13)
told the council that development was already encroaching on the area. He pointed to warehouses springing up nearby, the inland port and other projects. He argued for the family's right to develop their private property. "Industry’s just starting to...
October 23, 2025

Work finally begins on Salt Lake City's inland port project

(Fox 13)
ago. This site near I-80 and 7200 West is the old Salt Lake Valley landfill. It will become a new site for the Utah Inland Port, which has been billed as one of the largest economic development projects in state history. It bypasses a traditional...
May 29, 2025

Salt Lake City accepts $2.2M grant in pursuit to preserve 200 acres of Great Salt Lake wetlands

A great blue heron trots around the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area in Farmington on Feb. 10. Salt Lake City is still seeking to acquire 200 acres of wetlands south of Farmington Bay, by the Salt Lake-Davis county line. (Carter Williams, KSL.com)
million — is yet to be figured out, but Briefer said the city could receive about another $2.5 million from the Utah Inland Port Authority. Both external financial sources are contingent on a land agreement being reached, which — in the grant's case —...
February 23, 2025

Our most engaging stories of 2024

File -- Mark Milligan, with the Utah Geological Survey, takes a photo of a mound formed by the mineral mirabilite on the shores of the Great Salt Lake on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020. (Scott G. Winterton/Deseret News)
support for local journalism in the new year. Thank you for all you do! No. 10 ‘It’s a losing battle’: Approved Tooele inland port developments frustrate local residents. Tooele County resident Chris Eddington, whose backyard borders the recently...
December 26, 2024

Is Utah’s port authority plan the latest threat to the Great Salt Lake?

Deeda Seed, Center for Biological Diversity senior Utah campaigner, speaks during a press conference urging the halt to Utah Inland Port Authority development in Great Salt Lake wetlands at the capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Brian Moench says the Utah Inland Port Authority’s plans for new development spanning the Wasatch Front and multiple counties is a death knell for Utah’s environment, thousands of acres of wetlands and a threat to millions of birds. And a threat to our...
December 12, 2024

$50M from Inflation Reduction Act will be spent to deliver more water to the Great Salt Lake

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake north of Stansbury Island on Saturday, July 27, 2024.
looks to achieve cleaner air in the Beehive State by moving the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and the Utah Inland Port Authority away from diesel-powered equipment at Union Pacific’s Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal and reduce...
December 2, 2024

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