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Amid ongoing outcry over a massive, 40,000-acre data center campus being planned in northern Utah, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams announced that he’s calling for the project to be scaled back dramatically.

“I’ve sent a letter directly to Kevin O’Leary calling for a 75% reduction in the proposed data center project area, from 40,000 acres to approximately 10,000 acres,” Adams said in a prepared statement issued Monday. “I am also requiring that any excess water be treated and dedicated to the Great Salt Lake, even though none of the water currently used in that area flows to the lake.”

Adams — who is running for reelection against two Republican challengers in the upcoming June 23 primary — is a longtime board member of the Military Installation Development Authority, known as MIDA, which is a powerful special district that’s overseeing the project’s development in Box Elder County.

The proposed data center — being pushed by celebrity investor O’Leary — prompted intense public backlash after its plans began moving forward last month, at first with little public awareness. Since then, outcry over its scale, energy consumption, emissions and potential water use has grown to one of the biggest controversies Utah has ever seen.

Adams also said Monday that he’s “demanding greater transparency, stronger conservation commitments and enhanced protections for Utah’s natural resources as this project moves through the review process.”

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