Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Jan. 17, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
In less than two decades Millard County may be home to the largest industrial area in the entire state.
That’s according to a Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) manager who last month met with county officials to discuss land use planning efforts on a 20,000- acre block of SITLA property surrounding the Intermountain Power Project.
Troy Herold, assistant managing director for SITLA’s energy and minerals division, made the presentation to county officials Dec. 19. He outlined some of the efforts being made to coax industrial development to accompany the ongoing IPP Renewed and Chevron/Magnum ACES Delta projects.
Utah Solar 1, a 300-megawatt solar project, is already set to begin construction in the block this year on more than 1,700 acres of SITLA property.
“The rest of the block we have been in constant planning mode I would say for this block,” Herold said. “Since the ACES project was announced, and even through the years, we’ve had a lot of different looks at this block from various companies. Now because of the value of this block to the trust, we’ve been very conservative in how we’ve approached that, making sure that they are actual, viable projects that would be a good fit for the block as a whole and that they would not impact existing lessees and activities that are there.”
SITLA planners have been busy evaluating the block’s highway, rail, telecom and power infrastructure, gauging the best fit for industry, the schools trust as well as the county.
“The stuff north of Brush Wellman up to the rail, we have set aside that area. To give you a sense of scale, as this develops—we do feel this is going to be developing over the next 10 or 15 years—this will be the largest industrial area in the state,” Herold told county commissioners.
While ECG’s Utah Solar 1 project got in, most of the rest of the block—save for probably a sliver of land nearer the Juab County line—will be unavailable for solar.
“If we were only interested in solar at this block, at which I’ve had offers to do solar on this entire block multiple times over the last several years. We’ve rejected almost all of those,” Herold said.
The SITLA manager also said he’s received lots of interest from data centers that might wish to locate inside the block. But he added that while data centers generate good tax revenue, they don’t generate much employment, and generally are high energy users and high water consumers.
“There are industrial opportunities at this block that we think will make a much better (fit), long-term for not only the trust but also for the county. Keep in mind that’s our goal always…So we may sometimes turn something away on a short term in order to preserve the long term future,” Herold told officials.
Commissioner Bill Wright said he agreed with that sentiment.
“We want to develop something that isn’t a flash in the pan, gives us a lot of tax dollars and then in 10 years we don’t have a dime in our pocket. We’ve already experienced that once,” the commissioner said.
Herold said that while the time horizon is still quite long, he sees the potential for up to three major manufacturing facilities to be built within the block, most likely by companies adjacent to the energy sector.
“What I can tell you is the folks we’ve been talking to about opportunities here… in 10 to 20 years I can certainly see one to two to three manufacturing-type facilities looking to hopefully come here. Rail served and based on energy development. What I mean by that is be part of the energy community,” he said.
This could lead to hundreds of good paying, new technical jobs available in the area eventually.
“Having heavy rail access into an energy-type hub, where you can do other types of manufacturing, could be a great, great, great thing for the community, we think. It may take 10 or 20 years and after I retire to see that happen but hopefully it does,” Herold said, adding later that he can’t be too specific because he’s signed a non-disclosure agreement.
But that’s just in one block.
The IPP and Oak City blocks (in blue) of SITLA land encompasses thousands of contiguous acres. The blocks offer the ability to concentrate types of developments in specific areas. Most SITLA parcels are spread out across the county and state.
SITLA also has been working to bring opportunities to a block of property just as large that sits outside Oak City.
He said the opportunities there are different based on the needs of the community. So far relatively little of the Oak City block is under development.
According to a GIS mapping tool on SITLA’s website, there is a 917-acre site under lease by 174 Power Global Corp. intended for a future solar project. A smattering of much smaller gravel and mineral leases are in the block as well.
Asked why that block was originally created, Herold said he was not sure, that it occurred before his time. One attendee said oil and gas exploration was conducted inside the block in the past and might be the reason it was originally assembled.
Individual parcels of SITLA property generally are about 640 acres each. Through swaps with other property owners, including the federal government, SITLA can assemble much larger blocks of property, better suited for a collection of related business activity.
Currently, SITLA has 3.3 million surface acres under management alongside an additional 4.5 million acres of mineral rights. It is among the largest land owners outside the federal government in Millard County.
Trust lands are not the same as public lands—the property was put into a trust at the moment of Utah statehood by Congress. The revenue generated by leasing or selling the property is meant to support a dozen or so beneficiaries, namely the state’s public school system, but also state-run hospitals, schools for the blind and deaf as well as higher education in the state.
SITLA manages the property, but the funds that land generates is managed by SITFO, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Funds Office. It currently has $3.2 billion in funds under management.
About $106 million was generated for public schools for the 2024-2025 school year, with Millard County receiving about $640,000. The previous year, SITLA lands generated a record-breaking $101 million for public schools. Much of that growth has come from oil and gas leases on SITLA property, Herold said.
While the IPP and Oak City blocks perhaps offer the best areas for dense economic development in the county, lots of other projects are taking place on SITLA parcels across the county.
One especially promising activity is geothermal energy production. Advanced drilling techniques developed by the oil and gas industry are being applied commercially to geothermal development.
Chinati Minerals LLC is one developer with more than 7,000 acres under lease near Clear Lake, all for geothermal development. Another company, Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals, Inc., has 1,086 acres under lease between Kanosh and Meadow on the west side of Interstate 15. It has another lease on 3,579 acres surrounding Dog Valley in the county’s far southeast corner. Rodatherm Energy Corp. is another geothermal company with a lease in Millard County, with 1,440 acres in the Escalante Desert near the Beaver County line.
Herold said he and SITLA are excited about the development of geothermal resources in the county, citing one company planning to build a project generating between 400 and 600 megawatts of baseload energy.
“We’re pretty excited about that project,” he said. “It’s not new technology, it’s just advanced technology now. A lot of that is coming from the science and research FORGE has been doing.”
FORGE is the Department of Energy’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, located on private land about 10 miles north of Milford.
Besides geothermal, Herold highlighted a few other recent developments, including that Graymont Western is expanding its footprint in the Crickets by about 6,425 acres. SITLA’s board is expected to approve the sale of 10 parcels at its Jan. 18 meeting.
Herold said he welcomed county officials’ invitation to sit with them as local planners look to update the county’s general plan later this year.
“As you are going through land use planning updates, as I understand you are looking at updating your general plan, et cetera, we would love to be sitting at the table with you to do that,” he said. “I’d be the one down here to do that probably.”
County Planner Adam Richins said officials would welcome the input. When introducing Herold, Richins said, “He is probably the closest thing we have to real answers when it comes to what is going to happen to Millard County.”
Later, he praised the level of attention SITLA has focused on the county.
“SITLA has put a lot of work into this. A lot of investment. I think we can all see the potential we have to see good things happen,” he said.
