Data centers next door: what the record shows about the ones already in Bluffdale and South Jordan

FOX 13 News visited a West Jordan neighbourhood beside the Novva data center to ask what it is like to live next to one 1. The account it recorded was mostly unconcerned: residents described occasional noise but no conflict, and the West Jordan Police Department, asked for noise complaints from the surrounding area over the past year, returned three reports — one for loud music and two for a rooster, none concerning the data center 1. The city's assistant administrator told the station West Jordan had received no complaints about the campus and that data centers contribute to the tax base 1. The station recorded the Novva campus at about 100 acres, similar in scale to a proposed project in Spanish Fork and far smaller than the proposed Stratos district in Box Elder County 1. None of that is a West Jordan-only question. Two of the cities this paper covers already host the industry the state is courting, and the record on those facilities is not uniform.

Bluffdale is home to the National Security Agency's Utah Data Center and to DataBank's Granite Point campus on South Pony Express Road, whose SLC3 building the company lists at 55,780 square feet of IT space, a 7MW critical load and a 100% renewable energy source 3. South Jordan hosts an eBay data center 2. The Ledger's five cities are not watching Utah's data-center build-out from the sidelines; part of it is already built here.

What those facilities draw is documented, at least in part. The Salt Lake Tribune, in a reporting partnership with Grist, obtained records from municipal water providers for known data centers and reported that the NSA facility in Bluffdale used more than 126 million gallons between October 2024 and September 2025 — around 390 acre-feet, or enough to meet the annual indoor needs of nearly 800 Utah households 2. Over the same period, the Tribune reported, the eBay data center in South Jordan used 19.5 million gallons, and DataBank's Granite Point campus in Bluffdale used a combined 7.7 million gallons over twelve months — a fraction of the NSA figure, even though the campus has 2.5 times more data center space 2. Novva's West Jordan campus, the one FOX 13 visited, used 3 million gallons over a year, two-thirds of it on landscaping, with the company's chief executive saying its servers are cooled without water 21.

The water these buildings pull is not only consumed. Bluffdale's own council record states that "Much of Bluffdale's irrigation water was Utah Data Center reuse water or from a subterranean well," an account staff gave the City Council on May 27, 2026, as the city described efforts to reduce its water use 4. In that respect the federal facility and the city are already trading water, not merely competing for it.

State policy is moving alongside. The Tribune reported a bill sponsored by Rep. Jill Koford (R-Ogden) that would require data centers to report their water use to the state, aggregated and released publicly without identifying individual facilities; the lawmaker said, "We really don't have any statewide guardrails for reporting and transparency" 2. On the power side, filings in a Utah Public Service Commission rulemaking describe S.B. 132 (2025) — codified at Section 54-26-101 of the Utah Code — as enacted to "facilitate timely and cost-effective interconnection options for large loads" while ensuring that "existing cost of service customers are insulated from unwarranted risk and cost impacts" 5.

The live question for the south valley is not whether data centers will come — they are here — but what the cities that host them know, and publish. The most detailed figures on the Bluffdale and South Jordan facilities came from a newspaper's records request, not from a standing disclosure requirement, and the bill that would require water reporting is still a proposal 2. A resident weighing the campus at the end of the street in Bluffdale or South Jordan has, for now, more detail about a neighbourhood in West Jordan than about their own 12.

Sources:

1 FOX 13 Utah, "What it's like living next to a data center: West Jordan residents share their experience" — the station's account of a West Jordan neighbourhood near the Novva campus: resident descriptions of minimal noise, three police reports for the surrounding area in the past year (one loud music, two rooster, none data-center related), the assistant administrator's statement that the city had received no complaints and that data centers contribute to the tax base, and the campus's roughly 100-acre scale. https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/utahs-data-centers/what-its-like-living-next-to-a-data-center-west-jordan-residents-share-their-experience 2 The Salt Lake Tribune with Grist, "Can Utah become a data center hub without draining its water supply?", published via the Great Salt Lake Collaborative — water-provider records for known Utah data centers: the NSA data center in Bluffdale at more than 126 million gallons between October 2024 and September 2025 (about 390 acre-feet, or nearly 800 Utah households' annual indoor needs); the eBay data center in South Jordan at 19.5 million gallons; DataBank's Granite Point campus in Bluffdale at a combined 7.7 million gallons over twelve months with 2.5 times more data center space than the NSA facility; Novva's West Jordan campus at 3 million gallons, two-thirds on landscaping; and Rep. Jill Koford's proposed data-center water-reporting bill, with her statement, "We really don't have any statewide guardrails for reporting and transparency." https://greatsaltlakenews.org/latest-news/salt-lake-tribune/can-utah-become-a-data-center-hub-without-draining-its-water-supply 3 DataBank, "Granite Point Data Center (SLC3), 14926 S Pony Express Rd – Bluffdale, UT" — the operator's own listing: 55,780 IT square feet, 7MW critical IT load, 38 onsite carriers and a 100% renewable energy source. https://www.databank.com/data-centers/salt-lake-city/granite-point-campus/14926-s-pony-express-road/ 4 Bluffdale City Council, meeting agenda and packet, May 27, 2026 — "Much of Bluffdale's irrigation water was Utah Data Center reuse water or from a subterranean well," in the city's account of its water-conservation efforts. https://bluffdale.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05272026-1816 5 Utah Public Service Commission rulemaking docket No. 25-R318-01, comments of Enyo Renewable Energy, LLC, filed June 16, 2026 — describing S.B. 132 (2025), codified at Section 54-26-101 et seq., Utah Code Annotated, as enacted to "facilitate timely and cost-effective interconnection options for large loads" in Rocky Mountain Power's Utah service territory "while also ensuring that existing cost of service customers are insulated from unwarranted risk and cost impacts." https://pscdocs.utah.gov/Rules/25R31801/345796EnyoCmnts6-16-2026.pdf