Imagine, if you will, a meadow alive with birds, bees, butterflies, wildflowers and aquatic life. This could be a wetland that drains slowly to the Great Salt Lake. But then one day, earthmovers and dump trucks arrive to begin the construction of a distribution warehouse for the Utah Inland Port Authority, or UIPA, in that beautiful meadow.
UIPA boasts about its commitment to environmental sustainability. In one of its glossy brochures, the word sustainability appears ten times in two pages. How can anyone possibly apply the word sustainability to a wetland that is ripped apart and replaced by a warehouse? It’s not just the warehouse but surrounding acres and acres of asphalt for trucks at the loading docks, parking for cars and links for road connections. Trucks belch fumes into the atmosphere and run their engines; lights during the night affect what few birds are left; and scarce water is needed for warehouse operations. Too bad about added truck traffic on our congested roads, but growth is good!
One of the main supporters of UIPA in the Utah Legislature is Jerry Stevenson. Perhaps he could explain in a Tribune op-ed his interpretation of the word sustainable as it applies to UIPA.
Our historic wetlands are irreplaceable. Their destruction is the opposite of saving the Great Salt Lake. As Wallace Stegner once wrote: “Something will have gone out of us if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed.” He was right.
UIPA is deceiving us when it claims to protect the environment in a sustainable manner. How much longer, after six years since its creation as an overreaching state entity by the Legislature, must we put up with the port?
James King, Salt Lake City