Utah Hive Politicsfrom the publisher of The Weber County HiveMAP 004 · Great Salt Lake
What is being built, permitted, bought, and protected around the Great Salt Lake: data centers, Inland Port areas, water and mineral projects, conservation actions, and military project areas. Click a pin for who approved it, what the record shows, and the Hive case file behind it. Conservation actions are on the map too, not only pressures. Pin locations are general, not exact boundaries.
Where the water goes
Rivers carry snowmelt toward the lake. Along the way, people use some of it up. This is called depletion: water that is consumed and does not flow back. The pins on the map above are individual projects; the biggest uses, farms and lawns, are spread across thousands of fields and yards and cannot be shown as a single pin.
Simplified. Percentages are shares of human-caused depletion in the basin, 2020–2024.
Source: Utah Division of Water Resources, Great Salt Lake Basin Water Budget (updated model); Great Salt Lake Strike Team.
Added together, homes use more water than today's data centers. But that total is spread across hundreds of thousands of households. A single large user can equal hundreds or thousands of homes, and some of the largest users have no reporting or cut requirement.
| One user | Acre-feet a year | Same as about |
|---|---|---|
| One Utah household (average) | 0.5 | 1 home |
| Aligned data center, West Valley City | about 245 | 490 homes |
| NSA Utah Data Center, Bluffdale | about 387 | 770 homes |
| River Oaks wells, Sandy (golf course, up to) | 500 | 1,000 homes |
| Keller Cattle new water right, Promontory | 556.7 | 1,110 homes |
| Copper Club golf course, Magna (2022, reported) | 1,085 | 2,170 homes |
| Stratos, proposed (published estimate, power generation only) | up to about 50,000 | 100,000 homes |
At the high estimate, Stratos alone would equal about 12% of all home lawn and landscape watering in the basin (50,000 ÷ 408,500), and about 2% of all water used up in the basin, from one project.
Hive calculation. Household average of 0.5 acre-feet a year as used by the Salt Lake Tribune (Feb. 10, 2025). Data center figures converted from gallons (1 acre-foot = 325,851 gallons), Tribune, Jan. 14, 2026. River Oaks: Division of Water Rights notices (up to 500 acre-feet). Keller Cattle: State Engineer approval, July 2024. Copper Club: Tribune golf data, April 2023; Rio Tinto Kennecott has said this figure includes a shared industrial well. Stratos: Utah Clean Energy, 2026, not a developer figure; developers say plans are still under design. Some of these are water rights or withdrawals, not water used up, so they are not exact comparisons.| 1. Courses operating in Utah (2022 data set) | 111 |
| 2. Share that did not track or did not share water use | about 25% (about 28 courses) |
| 3. Water reported by the courses that did share (2022) | about 23,600 acre-feet |
| 4. If non-reporters used water at the same average rate: 23,600 ÷ 0.75 | about 31,500 acre-feet |
| 5. Estimated water not reported (31,500 − 23,600) | about 7,900 acre-feet |
| 6. Share of basin total (about 2.5 million acre-feet), reported only | about 0.9% |
| 7. Share of basin total, with the estimate for non-reporters | about 1.3% |
The June 2026 state-commissioned report gives agriculture as about 63% and municipal use as about 11% of consumptive use. That report measures differently from the water budget shown above; the two sets of figures are not directly comparable.
Diversions, then and now
Statewide water diversions, by use
Sources: Utah Foundation; KSL; Salt Lake Tribune / Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Nov. 2022. Statewide diversions, a different measure from basin depletion above.
How the basin's water use has shifted
Over about 150 years: how much each use lowered the lake
Source: Wurtsbaugh et al., Utah State University, 2016. The study found water use cut river flow into the lake by 39%, leaving it about 11 feet lower with about 48% less volume.
Water leased for the lake, compared with the target
Acre-feet a year. Source: Great Salt Lake Strike Team, Data and Insights Summary, Jan. 7, 2026. The target is additional water each year to reach a healthy minimum lake level by 2034.
Who is required to change
Households are under a firm deadline to meter outdoor water, and mineral companies faced required cuts in 2025. Agriculture, the largest user, has voluntary programs. Golf courses have no reporting requirement, and existing data centers are exempt from the new reporting law.
| Who | Share of use | What is required | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households (outdoor, secondary water) | Outdoor watering at homes: 96.9% of residential depletion; home lawns and landscaping about 408,500 acre-feet in 2024 | Secondary water meters statewide by Jan. 1, 2030 (H.B. 242, 2022; S.B. 251, 2023). About 85% of connections were unmetered in 2022. Where meters went in, use dropped 20 to 40%. | Required |
| Mineral companies | 5.7% of basin depletion | Required cuts when the lake neared 4,192 feet in 2025. The mineral severance tax rose from 2.6% to 7.8% (H.B. 453, 2024). | Required |
| Agriculture | 65% of basin depletion; alfalfa and hay 68% of statewide diversions | Reductions in 2025 were voluntary and paid through incentives. The $132 million Agriculture Water Optimization Program on the state's project list has no funding secured. | Voluntary |
| Golf courses | About 23,600 acre-feet in 2022 (voluntary reports; about 25% did not report) | No reporting requirement. H.B. 188 (2023) would have required disclosure and did not pass; S.B. 195 (2024) would have studied golf water and kept the data private, and did not pass. Public water-right notices can also leave the course unnamed: Sandy's River Oaks applications were noticed as "municipal use" (see the map pin). | None |
| Data centers | Six named facilities: 3 million to 126 million gallons a year (city water records). Meta reported about 35 million gallons itself. See the data center list below. | H.B. 76 (2026) requires new large data centers to report water use starting July 1, 2026. Facilities already operating or under construction before that date are exempt. | New ones only |
| Facility (city) | Gallons a year |
|---|---|
| NSA Utah Data Center (Bluffdale) | 126 million |
| Aligned Data Centers (West Valley City) | 80 million |
| Aligned Data Centers (West Jordan) | 47.4 million |
| eBay (South Jordan) | 19.5 million |
| DataBank Granite Point (Bluffdale) | 7.7 million |
| Novva (West Jordan) | 3 million |
| Meta (Eagle Mountain), 2024, reported by Meta | about 35 million |
Drinking water or secondary water?
What the NSA paid for water under its 2011 contract
Under the contract, the NSA paid one flat rate of $2.05 per 1,000 gallons no matter how much it used. Other Bluffdale customers paid more per 1,000 gallons as their use went up, up to $3.25 above 100,000 gallons a month. The contract also required a $12,500 monthly maintenance fee.
| Gallons used in a month | Per 1,000 gallons |
|---|---|
| 1,000 to 10,000 | $1.55 |
| 10,000 to 50,000 | $1.95 |
| 50,000 to 100,000 | $2.60 |
| Above 100,000 | $3.25 |
| NSA, every gallon | $2.05 |
The math at 126 million gallons a year (Hive calculation, using 2011 rates)
| Regular rates | NSA contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Water charges a year | about $420,900 | about $258,300 |
| Maintenance fee a year | none | $150,000 |
| Total a year | about $420,900 | about $408,300 |
Water charges alone: about $162,600 a year less, or about 39% less. With the maintenance fee: about $12,600 a year less, or about 3% less. The contract also set a minimum monthly payment, but that amount was redacted, so the full total cannot be calculated from public records.
Assumes use spread evenly, about 10.5 million gallons a month, and includes the 10-cent elevation charge in both columns. The 10-year contract took effect Sept. 30, 2011; its current terms were not found. This shows how the 2011 pricing worked, not an actual bill. Utah's average rate in 2011 was $2.09 per 1,000 gallons. Source: Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah town gave NSA a deal on water," Nate Carlisle, Nov. 30, 2013; 126 million gallons from the Tribune, Jan. 14, 2026.No public water number found:
Gov. Cox closed the lake basin to most new water rights in November 2022. In the two years after, about 300 applications asked for more than 230,000 acre-feet. The state approved about 2,517 acre-feet of new rights, mostly for irrigation and stock water.
The largest approval found was Keller Cattle Corp. (associated with House Speaker Mike Schultz): 556.7 acre-feet a year near Promontory, approved July 2024. That is about 22% of all new water approved in the basin in those two years (Hive calculation: 556.7 ÷ 2,517). A nearby applicant, Mango-Spiral Jetty LLC, was approved for 240 acre-feet of a larger request and has challenged the decision in court (see map pins).
The closure has exceptions: uses that return the water (such as hydropower), applications with a plan to offset water used, and small amounts. Source: Salt Lake Tribune / Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Feb. 10, 2025 (Division of Water Rights data through Oct. 29, 2024); Governor's Proclamation 2022-01.Sources: Utah Code 73-10-34; Consequences of Drying Lake Systems Around the World: 2026 Update; Great Salt Lake Enhancement Projects Master List; Utah Legislature bill histories; Division of Water Rights. Shares mix two measures (basin depletion and statewide diversions) as labeled.
Read: Who's Actually Using the Water? →Read: GSL Fact vs. Fiction →
The money to help the lake
The state's master list has 161 projects that would help the lake, from canal piping to wetland restoration. Separately, the Legislature gave $40 million to the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust in 2022 to buy, lease, and accept water for the lake.
The 161-project list: $636.5 million
Source: Great Salt Lake Enhancement Projects Master List (DWQ-2024-000314).
Share funded, by type of project
The Trust's $40 million, after three years
Source: Watershed Enhancement Trust year-end reporting, through Dec. 31, 2025.
Water the Trust reports transacting each year (acre-feet)
Final wetland awards are made by the Trust Council and the state lands division, after a committee of experts scores the proposals.
Simplified. A separate $53 million pool opened in 2025 for water transactions and projects; its awards were expected in spring 2026.
Read: $511 Million Short →Read: Three Years, $7.24 Million →Read: What Losing the Lake Would Cost →
Known, but not yet on the map
These appear in public records or Hive case files, but the records reviewed do not give a site precise enough to place a pin. They will be added when they do.
Tap a card to flip it.
Projects and decisions that add demand on the lake or its water, and actions taken to protect it. Conservation pins are green. Some items cover a large area, such as the Sentinel Landscape, and are placed at a general point with a note.
Figures come from permits, water rights orders, project area plans, budgets, and agency pages, or from the Hive case file that cites them. Estimates from advocacy groups are labeled as their claims. Where sources disagree, the pin says so.
The Hive's Great-Salt-Lake repo has the full explainers. MAP 001 shows how the Inland Port and MIDA areas are financed statewide.
Utah Hive Politicsfrom the publisher of The Weber County HiveIndependent · Accountability · Journalism