Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

[Suzanimal]

:)



Lawmakers are considering a bill that would shut off the water spigot to the massive data center operated by the National Security Agency in Bluffdale, Utah.
The legislation, proposed by Utah lawmaker Marc Roberts, is due to go to the floor of the Utah House of Representatives early next year, but it was debated in a Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee meeting on Wednesday. The bill, H.B. 161, directs municipalities like Bluffdale to “refuse support to any federal agency which collects electronic data within this state.”

The NSA brought its Bluffdale data center online about a year ago, taking advantage Utah’s cheap power and a cut-rate deal for millions of gallons of local water, used to cool the 1-million-square-foot building’s servers. Roberts’ bill, however, would prohibit the NSA from negotiating new water deals when its current Bluffdale agreement runs out in 2021.

The law seems like a long-shot to clear legislative hurdles when Utah’s legislature re-convenes next year, but Wednesday’s committee hearing was remarkable, nonetheless, says Nate Carlisle, a reporter with the Salt Lake Tribune who has waged a fight with the NSA and Bluffdale officials to determine how much water the data center is actually using. “What’s noteworthy is no one on the panel said: ‘Hey, wait a minute, we can’t do this,'” he says. “They had some specific concerns about the language of the bill, but there was no outright opposition.”

Utah lawmakers on the committee could have voted to give the bill an “unfavorable” review on the spot, essentially dooming it on the floor, but they didn’t do that.

Instead, they simply listened to testimony on the NSA and Bluffdale’s support of the center. “I just don’t want to subsidize what they’re doing on the back of our citizens,” Carlisle quotes Republican Representative Roger Barrus as saying during the meeting.

Utah has a long history of disputes with the federal government, but this is the first time Carlisle remembers anyone proposing to cut off water to a federal agency. “I think it’s representative of an attitude change in Utah that the bill is even being discussed,” he says.

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/utah-considers-cutting-water-nsas-monster-data-center/?mbid=social_fb

[Occam's Banana]

Will Utah Succeed Where the USA Freedom Act Failed?
http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2014/11/20/will-utah-succeed-where-the-usa-freedom-act-failed/
Michael Boldin (20 November 2014)

With some prominent privacy activists recognizing that appealing to Congress to stop NSA spying is futile, a hearing today in Utah shows that there is another path to shutting down mass surveillance. One that can work.

WATER

A bill known as the 4th Amendment Protection Act (http://offnow.org/legislation) was introduced by Utah State Rep. Marc Roberts earlier this year. The goal if passed? To begin the process of turning off resources – like water – to the NSA facility in Bluffdale. Since the spy center will be using up to 1.7 million gallons of water to cool its servers every day, turning off the spigot will have the effect of shutting it down.

That’s just what happened in Nevada when they refused water permits to the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain nuclear storage project, and a federal judge even ruled in the state’s favor in 2007.

“The validity of Western states’ groundwater rights and the right to regulate water in the public interest is not a right to be taken lightly, nor is it a right that can cavalierly be ignored or violated by a federal agency,” wrote Judge Roger L. Hunt.

And while the Utah legislature didn’t pass the bill last spring, an important committee referred it to further study. That “study” happened today in an important public utilities interim committee hearing to investigate the data center’s deals on water and electricity.

STRONG SUPPORT

There was significant public support for the bill both prior to and at the hearing. The room was packed, and it was even jokingly noted by a sponsor of another bill that the people were obviously not “there for my bill.” And one inside source said that committee members had received “tons” of emails in support of the legislation.

A well-known member of the tech community spoke in favor of the bill, explaining how he was moved in support due to another failure by Congress.

“I opposed the effort to turn off the water to the NSA data center last year because I was hoping the Federal Congress would take action,” said Pete Ashdown, the founder and CEO of Utah’s first independent and oldest Internet service provider, XMission (https://xmission.com/our_story). “They have tried three times to take action, and failed three times. So I really do think it is a state issue at this point to show that we do not support these infringements on our rights.”

“The data center here was welcomed by the state of Utah with a promise that their activities would remain within Constitutional bounds,” said Roberts. “I think we all know and are aware that has been violated,” he continued.

Joe Levi, vice-chair of the Davis County Republican Party, also spoke in favor of the bill. “This is a bill about civil rights, This is a bill that needs to be taken up and needs to be taken seriously,” he said.

“We all chuckle when we talk about how the NSA has already read this, how NSA probably is listening right now. That’s the problem,” continued Levi.

HARD TRUTH: THE NSA ISN’T GOING TO STOP ITSELF

At The Intercept (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/19/irrelevance-u-s-congress-stopping-nsas-mass-surveillance/) today, Glenn Greenwald wrote that “Congress is irrelevant on mass surveillance,” and he’s right. In fact, he said what we’ve been saying here all along:

All of that illustrates what is, to me, the most important point from all of this: the last place one should look to impose limits on the powers of the U.S. government is . . . the U.S. government. Governments don’t walk around trying to figure out how to limit their own power, and that’s particularly true of empires.

Following that, Greenwald explained what steps people should take to protect their privacy in an age where the US Government will not. But what he failed to mention might be the biggest one of all. Utah. If Utah – and 10-12 other states around the country – would turn off resources to the NSA, that would create an atmosphere where even if the agency weren’t fully shut down, they’d be reeling to the point that they could be run out of town.

And that’s the end goal.

Contact your state legislators today (http://www.offnow.org/4th_amendment_protection_act). Whether you live in an NSA-facility state or not, we need to box them in and make it nearly impossible for them to keep the lights on.

Together, we can pull the rug out from under the NSA and shut them down.

[fr33]

That's a better option rather than running away to Mexico like the Romneys did.

[Anti Federalist]

Please please please please please....

[Dianne]

Go for it !!!! The only thing that can beat this Federal MONSTER now, are the States. The States have the power to take the Federal Government and turn it on its' ass, until it gets in line as the public servant it was meant to be.

[Suzanimal]

:)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ANUo8BnYoo

[jbauer]

The Feds would have till 2021 to get an alternate water source. I'm pretty sure there'd be no problem building that pipeline

[ZENemy]

"Considering"

[JK/SEA]

Please please please please please....


never happen.

more than likely this is being used to get more money from tax payers, AKA big government.

[jonhowe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDo-KqUjpA

[osan]

I would say 99% that this goes nowhere.

If it passes, the feds will not simply sit still for it. They will threaten the state... you know, the usual things like cutting off highway funding. I can readily see feds apprehending select local officials and throwing the book at them as examples to the rest. If by some means the local communities rally to protect their officials (yeah, right) I could even see the feds employing black bag teams to grab those who dare transgress.

What I do not see is openly violent confrontation. That would be the worst option for Themme. If all else fails, they will simply leave, take their meager lumps, and move to a state like CA, IL, NY, NJ, OH, MA, MD, VT, CT etc. who will polish the NSA knob with eternal loyalty. The spying will resume and that will be that.

What I might do is threaten them with consequences insufficiently severe to justify moving. Let them operate, but demand full audit access with 30 seconds warning. Any time, as many times as Utah chooses. This would be called "watching the watchers", and that is what is needed more than the palliative measure of shutting them down. Theye have endless money. If there is no budget for a new center, a few keystrokes on a terminal later someone miraculously finds money that had been "forgotten". Uh-huh.

[presence]

I would say 99% that this goes nowhere.


I suspect that the NSA will simply create a closed loop cooling system and give Utah the finger.

[A Son of Liberty]

Confiscate a few more acres of land, sink a few more wells... it's good to be king!

[acptulsa]

I suspect that the NSA will simply create a closed loop cooling system and give Utah the finger.

What? Radiators?

It'll never happen. Too old tech. Besides, this is the federal government we're talking about. That's nowhere near wasteful enough.

Besides, the Bureau of Land Management just got a shiny new SWAT team for Christmas and is just itching to play with it.

[muh_roads]

Whatever steps our asshole aristocratic Government needs to take to keep spying on its serfs will be done. Because their money supply is infinite so long as the 'petrodollar' / OPEC connection scam is allowed to exist.

[devil21]

Feels like I've seen this same headline for the last year, yet nothing happens....

[Tod]

wishful thinking

[FindLiberty]

And fed-gov is finalizing plans to cut off the state's entire food supply
and turn off the electrical grid for all residents of Utah. We'll have to
wait and see who wins than one...