There's a second application to acquire water rights for the Stratos Project data center in Box Elder County — and with it, more protests from residents.
The county recently approved an agreement with the Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, allowing for the massive data center to be built.
The project has faced criticism for how it could affect water resources, increase taxes, and endanger wildlife, while proponents point to economic benefits to the region.
However, there are still more steps before the center is a done deal, including acquiring water rights.
The company behind the data center withdrew its first application on May 5, which meant the nearly 4,000 formal protests filed against it disappeared.
That company said it planned to refile with “additional supporting information.”
A separate entity submitted a water rights application at the end of April for the same project, and the period to file protests opened on Monday.
Protests have already started coming in and can continue to do so until June 16.
