It’s been a big couple of days for efforts against proposed data centers in Utah.
The Utah State Engineer confirmed on Wednesday that a second water rights application for the massive Box Elder County data center project was withdrawn, this one from an entity called Murray Hollow L.C.
It’s unclear whether the group plans to refile. Bar H Ranch, who filed and then withdrew the first application, has already said it plans to do so.
As with the first withdrawn application, all formal protests against it — this time nearly 700 — will not carry over.
Then, on Thursday, the county rejected two referendum applications that wanted to put the data center decision to a vote.
Box Elder County Attorney Stephan R. Hafield said that referendums must involve a legislative action from the government, but these resolutions were only administrative.
Meanwhile, Iron County commissioners took a very different stance than in Box Elder on Tuesday by pausing any applications for data centers for the next six months.
They said this was to give them time to consider changes to county regulations, especially after extensive concern from residents about a data center application near Cedar City.
