By McKenzie Romero | Editor
What if instead of draining water resources from the surrounding environment, a data center could instead generate water as a biproduct of its power system?
That’s the announcement from Creekstone Energy, the company currently building a data center campus near far-flung Delta, Utah, with promises to go above and beyond when it comes to reducing its environmental impact at a time when similar developments are being challenged nationwide.
In today’s Dispatch we share the plans for the data center project and its “GIGAWATER” technology, why water advocates will be ripping out the lawn at the Governor’s Mansion, and a busy weekend fighting aquatic invasive species.
“Because we’re building in Delta, in the arid West, it’s not just about minimizing local water demand from the beginning, which we’ve been focused on. But how do we innovate and how do we recognize ways to do this better?” — Creekstone Energy CEO Ray Conley about the Project Oasis data center being built in Utah.
Construction crews work to build the first phase of a natural gas connection at the site of a data center project near Delta, Utah. (Photo courtesy of Creekstone Energy)
By Katie McKellar
Though Creekstone Energy is likely several years away from generating water at a large scale with the GIGAWATER process it is seeking to patent, CEO Ray Conley said he wanted to announce it now, as the University of Utah prepares to start its research to independently verify the technology.
The developer said the new technology can capture water vapor from the exhaust of Creekstone’s own natural-gas-powered electricity generation and convert it into water. The principal investigator with the University of Utah’s Energy & Geoscience Institute called the science “promising.”
Lee Creek flows through mudflats into the Great Salt Lake near Magna on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
The lawn at the Utah Governor’s Mansion will become undone on Friday at the hands of water conservation advocates and public employees to make space for water-wise and pollinator-friendly plants amid one the most severe droughts the state has recorded.
While the agricultural sector continues to be the largest consumer of water that would otherwise feed the Great Salt Lake, state data shows homes, businesses and institutions account for 27% of the water depleted from the lake. The event is part of a statewide service initiative from Sept. 10 to Sept. 19, with similar projects planned at other sites.
Boats leaving Lake Powell are required to undergo an exit inspection and a separate decontamination or cleaning process after quagga mussels were detected. (Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)
By McKenzie Romero
State agencies spent Labor Day weekend inspecting more than 9,000 boats, kayaks, paddleboards and other watercraft to prevent the spread of invasive species like quagga mussels or Eurasian watermilfoil.
Inspectors also noted violations of Utah law looking to prevent the spread of invasive species, mostly from boaters who hadn’t completed the state’s mandatory mussel-aware boater program course, hadn’t paid the aquatic invasive species fee or failed to remove drain plugs while transporting their watercraft.
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