The Utah Inland Port Authority continues to seek interest from Utah communities that might want a satellite port in their future.
At the most recent Utah Inland Port Authority Board meeting, Ginger Chinn, the authority’s managing director of business development, said that officials in Wayne, Juab, Iron, Grand, Emery, Carbon and Beaver counties have expressed a desire to consider being the location of a satellite port to augment the main shipping, logistics, warehousing and manufacturing port site near the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Weber, Box Elder and Tooele counties are expected to join that list.
As part of the interest-gauging activities, authority officials have undertaken the “intake process” and consulted with the Utah Association of Counties and various associations of governments to discover the locations for potential satellite sites.
“I’d like to reiterate that this is not an application or a contest,” Chinn said. “It’s simply an intake. We’re trying to understand what exists.”
The authority has sought local input about the sites’ rail connectivity, how prepared they are to become a port, the benefits and impacts of a port, and other details. That information is being used to create an “asset map.”
“It does not guarantee a port designation,” Chinn said.
The next phase of the satellite port process will be understanding the business rationale for creating them, she said.
“And one of the things that has come out loud and clear when we’re talking to the shippers on the West Coast as well as the users, [is] that if there is not a business case, there is no need to move this through a certain area. It’s not a ‘build it and they will come’-type scenario. We have to be really thoughtful and methodical in this process,” Chinn said.
That business-case study will include meeting with local businesses in and around the areas, trying to better understand the freight movement, demand, possible partners and users, and assessing potential shipping volume.
After that, the authority board will determine whether to designate sites as project areas, and then local communities would advance the process. Each will have their own considerations and timelines, she said.
“There are different ideas about what this could be,” Chinn said. “And that’s going to be our message going forward: What does this mean to each individual community?”
Jack Hedge, the authority’s executive director, said the goal is “to really bring value-added services to goods movement in and around the state.” The authority will use the collected data with existing information about how goods move through the state, what goods move through the state “and where those touchpoints are where we can try to shift cargos, move things to more efficient, more effective modes of transportation,” he said.
Those Utah counties aren’t the only ones expressing interest in having ports, according to Chinn. “Ironically, I’ve had a lot of surrounding states come forward and say, ‘We want to be part of your satellite port process.’ So it’s not just Utah, really. It’s a regional approach, beyond Utah,” she said.
But the satellite port concept, like the development of a main port in Salt Lake City, has drawn criticism. While some people might see satellite sites as spreading the wealth, critics see them as spreading the problems that they believe ports will create through increased greenhouse gas emissions, pollution deteriorating air quality, and damages to natural habitats. During the public comment portion of the quarterly meeting, several speakers raised concerns about fossil fuels — specifically, coal — being exported from satellite ports to seaports.