By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Last year, Utah set a record for how much the state spent fighting wildfires. Not even two weeks into August, the state is on track to blow past the record in 2026.
Federal funds usually cover a large share of firefighting costs, and commitments have already been made to help with this year’s bills. To pay for Utah’s part of the expenses, elected officials are looking to free up state funding.
In today’s Dispatch we look at the rising price tag on the 2026 wildfire season, how data centers impact nearby property taxes, and the Colorado ranchers joining a court fight against fossil fuel companies.
“Costs are going to go up even if the moisture that we see moving in now continues. Those fires are still going to have a lot of costs going forward.” — Wade Snyder, deputy state fire management officer with the Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands on the mounting costs of large fires currently burning in Utah.
A firefighter looks over a burned area from the Rocky Canyon Fire near Henefer, Utah, in a photo shared by fire officials on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Photo by Samuel P Barlow Jr via Utah Fire Info)
By Annie Knox
Utah has burned through an estimated $33 million to fight raging wildfires this year, putting the state on track to outspend last year’s record total of $36 million.
Inflation is partly to blame. But the rising cost also reflects the sheer size of this year’s fires, their encroachment on communities and the intense heat, drought and wind making them more resistant to containment.
Construction continues on the new QTS data center in Eagle Mountain on Friday, April 17, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
When a new data center’s walls are first raised on Utah land, neighboring property owners will likely get some tax relief. That break, however, is likely to be temporary.
The enormous property values of data centers often carry complex tax questions for the municipalities that host them, a Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute brief says. What initially starts with tax relief for property owners may be followed by tax volatility in the future as the center’s equipment depreciates and the state’s truth in taxation policies take effect.
Kathleen Sullivan Kelley rides one of her horses at her Rio Blanco County ranch. (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Sullivan Kelley)
COLORADO NEWSLINE
By Sharon Sullivan
Every three days, Kathleen Sullivan Kelley hauls water from the town of Meeker to fill a 500-gallon tank at her ranch in Rio Blanco County. Kelley’s horses used to drink from ponds on the property, but there’s no longer any surface water, and she and her husband sold the last of the 200 cows they once raised. Kelley, 71, is concerned that the ranch could eventually be cut off from the city water source due to worsening drought.
Kelley joined six other ranchers in filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit brought by the city of Boulder and Boulder County against three Suncor Energy entities and Exxon Mobil. Boulder is seeking monetary damages for costs incurred responding to wildfires, repairing transportation infrastructure, restoring watersheds and other harm related to climate change.
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