By Robert McMillan
11.20.14 | 6:01 pm |
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would shut off
the water spigot to the massive data center operated by the National Security
Agency in Bluffdale, Utah.
The legislation, proposed by Utah lawmaker Marc
Roberts, is due to go to the floor of the Utah House of Representatives early
next year, but it was debated in a Public Utilities and Technology Interim
Committee meeting on Wednesday. The bill, H.B. 161, directs municipalities like
Bluffdale to “refuse support to any federal agency which collects electronic
data within this state.”
The NSA brought its Bluffdale data center online about
a year ago, taking advantage Utah’s cheap power and a cut-rate deal for millions
of gallons of local water, used to cool the 1-million-square-foot building’s
servers. Roberts’ bill, however, would prohibit the NSA from negotiating new
water deals when its current Bluffdale agreement runs out in 2021.
The law seems like a long-shot to clear legislative
hurdles when Utah’s legislature re-convenes next year, but Wednesday’s committee
hearing was remarkable, nonetheless, says Nate Carlisle, a reporter with the
Salt Lake Tribune who has waged a fight with the NSA and Bluffdale officials to
determine how much water the data center is actually using. “What’s noteworthy
is no one on the panel said: ‘Hey, wait a minute, we can’t do this,'” he says.
“They had some specific concerns about the language of the bill, but there was
no outright opposition.”
Utah lawmakers on the committee could have voted to
give the bill an “unfavorable” review on the spot, essentially dooming it on the
floor, but they didn’t do that.
Instead, they simply listened to testimony on the NSA
and Bluffdale’s support of the center. “I just don’t want to subsidize what
they’re doing on the back of our citizens,” Carlisle quotes Republican
Representative Roger Barrus as saying during the meeting.
Utah has a long history of disputes with the federal
government, but this is the first time Carlisle remembers anyone proposing to
cut off water to a federal agency. “I think it’s representative of an attitude
change in Utah that the bill is even being discussed,” he says.
http://www.wired.com/2014/11/utah-considers-cutting-water-nsas-monster-data-center/