In the waning hours of the 2018 legislative session, in a move intended to handcuff almost certain widespread public opposition, powerful legislators slid some really noxious corporate pork legislation under Gov. Herbert's door, and he signed it. It addressed a problem that didn't exist, and is creating new ones we never had. Everyone that is not the CEO of well-connected real estate developing corporations or a warehouse construction boss will come to rue the day. It will significantly degrade quality of life along the Wasatch Front, bestowing upon all of us more diesel exhaust-spewing truck traffic, more air pollution of all types, more traffic congestion, more shrinking of Great Salt Lake, and destruction of its wetlands, wildlife and open space. More of just about everything we don't want for our future.

The bill gave birth to the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) and was celebrated at the time as the dawn of guaranteed, unparalleled economic nirvana. A tsunami of jobs, jobs, jobs, growth, growth and more growth.

Utah's unemployment rate has been one of the lowest in the nation -- currently 3.0%, close to full employment. We've hardly been in need of a jobs stimulus. Meanwhile, what was evolving in other "inland ports" told a much different story than economic nirvana. The kind of jobs that were being created in these inland port massive distribution centers feeding online shopping were almost exclusively low-paying warehouse jobs, with no benefits and no security. In 2020, Amazon warehouse employees were on food stamps in nine states. Many of those jobs will soon evaporate with the inevitable arrival of robotics and automation.

Meanwhile, the nickname for these inland port/mega-warehouse farms in other states are "diesel deaths zones", a visceral tribute to how nearby residents view what's happened to their health from the influx of thousands upon thousands of trucks and other port-related air pollution.

After leaving a trail of broken promises, squandered taxpayer money, upheaval on their board and turnover in their director's chair, UIPA has been virtually run out of town in Salt Lake County. Then they changed their "vision," if you want to call it that, into a network of smaller ports positioned up and down the Wasatch Front, many on or near the eastern shores of Great Salt Lake, and right on top of its wetlands.

UIPA's "project area" in Weber County should be alarming to anyone in the county that values their health, bucolic lifestyle, the beauty of their environment or the treasure of unspoiled open space. UIPA plans to industrialize 9,000 acres, sandwiched between the Harold S. Crane and the Ogden Bay waterfowl management areas. You can kiss those birds, and much of what else you value, goodbye and say hello to acre after acre of asphalt, concrete and truck caravans.

UIPA sells their project areas using a steady stream of comforting pablum about "sustainability," and promises they will be the most "environmentally friendly" port in the universe. If a cigarette salesman tells you, "These are the healthiest cigarettes on the planet," note to self, there's no such thing; they are still cigarettes. Don't buy what he's selling. And there's no such thing as an environmentally friendly inland port.

Brent Davis, a farmer and meat shop owner whose property next to the project area has been owned by his family for four generations, worries about the impact on his lifestyle and business. "This is not progress. This will completely upend our quality of life. Who benefits from this? Certainly not those of us who live here. Who's pushing this on us? Corporations who don't care how they make their money."

UIPA flaunts another reality. Where will the water come from? Joliet, Illinois, home to the largest inland port in the country, through which 4% of U.S. gross domestic product flows, is running out of water because of the same logistics industry central to UIPA's aspirations in Utah. And Illinois is not in a desert. Last year, Amazon, Dollar Tree, DHL, Interstate and Home Depot, just 2% of all the warehouses in the county, used 20.5 million gallons of water. Water consumed by a network of Utah ports will essentially be stolen from Great Salt Lake. Even Utah's conservative lawmakers recognize the potential catastrophe.

Weber County residents don't have to accept being force fed this ugly future. Tell your legislators and your county commissioners to say no to UIPA. They work for you, not UIPA and their corporate supplicants. It's your air, your water, your lifestyle and your future, and you can help protect it.

Dr. Brian Moench is the president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

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