Tooele Inland Ports
Attend the public hearing:
Tuesday, September 24
10 am
On Zoom Here's the link.
Help us show opposition to the plan by Tooele County Public Infrastructure District developers to sell ~$100 million in UIPA authorized tax-exempt high yield (junk bonds) to duns destruction of Great Salt Lake wetlands.
Another Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) boondoggle:
UIPA sponsored developer plans to build a wastewater treatment facility next to
Great Salt Lake to support industrial development
The state of Utah, through the Utah Inland Port Authority, is enabling rapid industrial development in Tooele County next to the shores of Great Salt Lake, and in the middle of 12,000 acres of high functioning Great Salt Lake biological wetlands. (See map from developers below.)
Below is a map of wetlands in the area. According to wetlands biologists, this portion of the Tooele Valley contains 12,000 acres of high functioning biological wetlands. These wetlands are in extreme jeopardy from destruction and degradation by this state subsidized industrial development, which includes building a wastewater treatment facility on the shores of Great Salt Lake.
What's happening with the proposed Tooele Valley Inland Port?
This subsidized industrial development - 2.45 million square feet of new warehouse development to start, is planned to contain 13 detention basins, a well, a water storage tank and a wastewater treatment facility. These facilities, built with public subsidies will be owned by the developers and will be served by diesel truck and rail, adding to pollution in an area with serious air pollution and water quality issues. The public does not know how much water will be used, or where the water rights are coming from.
This area (particularly this part of the Tooele Valley) is already having problems with wells drying up or becoming too saline. What are the hydrological impacts of this type of development next to Great Salt Lake?
That and other questions have not been answered as this project is being rushed, for no other reason than to benefit the developers, Zenith Bolinder LLC.
Zenith Bolinder is owned by the father and uncle of Utah State Representative Bridger Bolinder and Charles “Chuck” Akerlow of Zenith Development. Akerlow spent a year in prison after pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts of failure to pay $620,000 in federal excise tax on diesel fuel, money that was unrecoverable because the corporation was defunct.
The Tooele Valley project would not be happening without Utah Inland Port Authority subsidies and financial tools.
Public records show that Zenith Bolinder failed to pay $62,840 in Tooele County property taxes in 2023. They were also unable to get a traditional bank loan to move their project forward, so UIPA gave Zenith Bolinder a one-year loan of $4.875 million at 3.47%.
Now under the umbrella of UIPA, and a “public infrastructure district” that UIPA helped them create, they are proposing to sell approximately $100 million in UIPA sponsored tax-exempt junk bonds to pay for their infrastructure to support industrial development. The interest rate on this publicly subsidized borrowing is allowed to be as high as 12-13%, resulting in the total cost of borrowing being in the hundreds of millions of dollars at a minimum. And, they are planning to sell these bonds at a time when interest rates are still high.
This, when the public hasn’t been fully informed of the consequences of this kind of development so close to Great Salt Lake.
Background
The Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) created 2 Inland Port Project Areas in Tooele County and they're providing significant tax breaks and other tax payer funded financial help to industrial developers (the Romney Group and Zenith Bollinder LLC). As a Port Authority staffer said to the Grantsville City Council, it will result in "fast tracking growth in your community."(Grantsville City Council meeting Sept. 6, 2023 at 9:36)
Both proposed project areas are seeking a rail connection to their development built by Savage Tooele Rail a subsidiary of Savage Services. They have been seeking approval to rebuild an old rail line that connects to the property from the mainline of the Union Pacific. The old rail line also connects to the proposed Tooele Inland Port Project Area.
Two of the developers seeking to make a profit from industrial development in Tooele County have relatives who are elected officials - State Representative Bridger Bolinder, and Josh Romney, son of US Senator Mitt Romney.
No business case for why the proposed Tooele County Inland Ports should be subsidized by the taxpayers has been presented to the taxpayers.
If built, the proposed Tooele Inland Port would destroy high functioning wetlands and put more pressure on the dying Great Salt Lake. It would damage air quality, increase traffic congestion, destroy roads and create danger from heavy trucks. In short it would destroy quality of life in Tooele County. Taxpayer money should not be used to benefit a few developers at the expense of public health.
Not only would residents of Tooele County be hurt by this, but so would people throughout northern Utah who would suffer from the degradation of our air shed, destruction of critical wildlife habitat increasing the stress on migratory birds, and increased polluting and dangerous truck traffic.