Utah's data center fight pits industry against conservation

Utah's proposed Stratos Project, a 9-gigawatt data centre backed by Kevin O'Leary, faces mounting opposition from conservation groups over water stress and environmental impact in Hansel Valley near the Great Salt Lake. The project has already been scaled from its original size and sits at the centre of a broader fight over how the state allocates its scarce water resources. If you're building data centres in the west, water is no longer a free variable — Utah just made that public. The Stratos fight signals that the cost to site hyperscale compute will rise sharply where aquifers are contested, and regulators will start demanding proof of zero water impact before approvals land.