Is Utah’s port authority plan the latest threat to the Great Salt Lake?
Rally at Capitol held by those worried about development near 77,000 acres of wetlands in multiple counties
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- 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.
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- Teri Durfee, lifelong Tooele County resident, attends 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.
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- Brian Moench, MD, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment president and a former adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah Honors College, 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.
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- 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.
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- Great Salt Lake Collaborative
Editor’s note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake — and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
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 public health.
“It is a ticking nuclear time bomb of a disappearing Great Salt Lake,” Moench warned during a Wednesday press conference detailing multiple groups’ objections to inland ports planned for Tooele, Weber, Utah and Box Elder counties.
Moench, who is president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, says the degradation of wetlands, threats to migratory birds and paving the ground should be enough to give one pause.
But there is something else.
“There is no toe tag in the morgue that says air pollution did this,” he emphasized, pointing to the resulting air pollution that causes heart attacks, other cardiac issues such as strokes, Alzheimer’s and more.
The coalition of organizations released a new report detailing what they say are the threats from inland port development, and planned to present a petition to port authorities later on Wednesday opposing an encroachment they say upends much of the work that has been done to save the Great Salt Lake.
At the state Capitol, the group held signs that proclaimed “Protect our Wetlands Not our Pockets.”
But Ben Hart, executive director of the Utah Inland Port Authority, said in reaction that coalition critics are vastly mischaracterizing their objections.
“This group is definitely trying to raise and elevate issues associated with the Great Salt Lake in the wetlands, kind of using the port as a shooting target. The reality is, this report is totally disconnected from what the port is actually doing,” he said. “We’ve gone to great lengths to protect the wetlands in areas where we’re supporting development. That includes actually putting, as of last month, $2.5 million towards grants to help protect wetlands.”
Aside from tax breaks to promote development, opponents assert the Utah Inland Port Authority has operated with little scrutiny and instead promotes development that threatens Utah landscapes.
“It is very dire,” said Deeda Seed, with the Center for Biological Diversity.
But Hart said no potential port development waltzes into a community without permission and actually has to have the blessing of communities looking to diversify their economic base.
“We also have specific wetland policy in one of our projects areas, project areas up in Weber County. This specifically states that wetlands cannot be destroyed, and then our overall wetlands policy was broadened today to protect additional wetlands. So this report is totally disconnected from what the port is actually doing,” he said. “But I will say we all have the same common objectives. We want to protect the lake. We want to help protect the wetlands surrounding the lake, and that’s very important to the inland port. So this report is definitely not accurate, and it’s not representative of what the port is actually doing. We are not involved in the destruction of wetlands.”
While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mandates a special permit for wetlands “taking,” advocates said the port authority is likely able to get around that because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that redefined what wetlands should be protected.
The wetlands fight
The Waters of the United States Rule decision said permanent wetlands fall under protection, but not those that are ephemeral.
An Obama-era rule issued in 2015 was lauded by environmental activists and conservation groups as the most significant and impressive overhaul of the Clean Water Act in 42 years.
Groups like the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership said the Obama rule clarified federal jurisdiction over seasonal streams — which involves 60% of the stream miles in the United States — and was critical for the Prairie Pothole region which hosts 70% of the ducks in North America.
Advocates Wednesday argued that same definition over seasonal streams or ephemeral wetlands is equally critical in Utah, where millions of migrating birds use the Great Salt Lake and its uplands to rest, feed and ready themselves for the next journey.
Yet the consequences of this “subsidized industrial development” will be profound.
For example, in the Tooele Valley, water resources are tapped out and wells are running dry. Local officials are saying they need to import water from somewhere else to sustain growth, but that will mean diverting more water away from the dying Great Salt Lake. As this crisis is unfolding, the state, through the Utah Inland Port Authority, is fast-tracking industrial development in and adjacent to wetlands in a way that will make the problem worse.
At threat are Wildlife Management Areas designed to protect waterfowl and other critical Utah wildlife.
But critics of the Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, under President Barack Obama argued its definition was overly broad and a hamstring for development — meaning anything “wet” is potentially subject to regulation. That definition was overturned.
That creates a problem for Utah, with its seasonal weather, periods of drought and the fickle nature of wetlands.
The Utah Inland Port Authority is seeking to develop hubs in multiple counties to build on Utah’s economic development. Hart said that includes a meat processing plant in Juab County and rail infrastructure in Iron County — which cuts down on traffic and actually helps fight pollution.
