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By Myrna Trauntvein| A data center is being planned for a site north of Mona Reservoir on the boys’ home road, just across the railroad tracks. Jon Jensen, Chief Development Officer for DCPC (Data Center Power Company), Clint Ashmead, Project Executive, met with county commissioners to discuss approval for their site plan. Colby Park, county planning director, said that the county planning commission had held a public hearing but few comments were received. Conditions had been set. Park said that the company would provide a 6-foot right of way on the 500 North Road, would engineer and improve the road, would address the railroad crossing with an acceleration and deceleration on Old Highway 91. “It may take some time to work with the railroad company,” said Park. “We should have them bond for the road work,” said Lynn Ingram, county road superintendent. “The county does have road standards.” Mike Sperry, Juab Title & Abstract Company vice president, asked if the railroad policy was that the county needed to give up two crossings to improve one. Marty Palmer, commissioner, said he hated to give up anything. Most crossings were necessary for farm access. “We need to get a plan,” said Ingram. “Colby and I need to work on that. This will count as one because we would move it from private to public use.” “DCPC is a Data Center Power Collaboration,” said Jensen. “We received a conditional use permit about a year ago for a large two-building (approximately 1 million square feet) data center.” There may be other ways to access the property but they would be the long way around, said Ingram. He said the plan now needed additional adjacent parcels (the Kay property and Young Living property) included because the final design made the facility more linear/rectangular which caused buildings to cross property lines. Palmer said he had concerns about the amount of water that the plant would need. He asked if they had water rights. “We will lease water from the Lavender Farm,” said Jensen. “The agricultural use will be converted into M&I use.” Jensen said their design uses a closed-loop system with only about 300 acre-feet/year of consumptive water use, mostly for a few very hot days, with water stored in tanks and drawn during limited hours, and that they are leasing existing water from Young Living Farms. “We have also been working with the county on bringing water through the Central Utah Project (CUP),” he said. Jensen said that the water used would be recycled with the process adding new coolant as needed. When it reached the point where it needed to be replaced, the coolant would be taken to Salt Lake City to be handled. “The fluid can be used for a long time before that happens,” he said. “We will drill an 800-foot well that will be used to top off our water tank and keep it full,” said Jensen. Marvin Kenison, commissioner, asked about stormwater retention ponds. “We will install those,” said Jensen. Ingram said he would like to see the roads improved prior to or during the construction phase because the existing roads would not hold up under heavy construction traffic. “How many people will be employed?” asked Palmer. “There are two sets of jobs,” said Jensen. “During construction there could be 2,000 workers but during operation there would be 300.” Jensen said there were substantial economic benefits for the county such as a large capital investment, property and personal property taxes, sales tax captured in Juab County through contract structuring, and ongoing natural gas usage that would generate municipal energy tax. Kenison said he would make the motion to accept the site plan with the conditions outlined by the planning commission. Palmer made the second and all voted in favor.
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