View this email in your browser Contact: Mike Maharrey

Communications Director

O: 213.935.0553 F: 213.402.3938

media@tenthamendmentcenter.com

www.tenthamendmentcenter.com



For Immediate Release: Dec. 2, 2013



NSA Gets Sweetheart Water Deal; Coalition Wants State to Turn it Off

The city of Bluffdale, Utah, gave the National Security Agency a sweetheart deal on water, and a coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum wants the state to shut it off.



According to a Nov. 28 story in the Salt Lake Tribune, the town extended the NSA discounted rates below its own guidelines and the average rate in Utah to secure the contract. Bluffdale also issued a $3.5 million bond to pay for new water lines and infrastructure to supply the sprawling data center.



The NSA is expected to use an estimated 1.7 million gallons of water per day to cool its computers when operating at full capacity.



Bluffdale officials say the water deal was all in the name of economic development, and the new infrastructure will open the door to growth in the area around the spy center.



Tenth Amendment Center national communications director Mike Maharrey said he understands the desire to spur economic development, but not at any cost.



“Claiming economic development doesn’t automatically justify every action,” he said. “How would people react if it was 1943 and the city was supplying water to an internment camp caging Japanese-Americans? It’s really the same thing. The NSA is blatantly violating basic rights protected by the Constitution. The city is selling out its own citizens, the people of Utah and all of America for a few economic development dollars. It’s pretty disgusting when you think about it.”



The OffNow coalition has developed model legislation that could force Bluffdale to shut off the flow of water to the NSA data center, and prevent other state and city governments from offering the spy agency similar sweetheart deals.



The Salt Lake Tribune incorrectly reported a perceived error in the OffNow.org messaging, saying, “Most of the literature the coalition has published incorrectly refers to the state supplying water to the Utah Data Center.”



But in fact, the coalition correctly asserts that “the state of Utah” supplies the water.



“Bluffdale is a political subdivision of the state of Utah,” Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin said. “In other words, it exists as part of the state government and is not independent. So, anything Bluffdale does ultimately is the responsibility of the state government – it has the final responsibility according to the state constitution.”



Boldin also pointed out the Utah state constitution specifies that a local government can operate public utilities “local in extent and use” – “subject to restrictions imposed by general law for the protection of other communities.”



“Passage of the 4th Amendment Protection Act in Utah would ban all political subdivisions from providing material support to NSA’s mass surveillance program. As per the state constitution, this would qualify as a ‘general law’ to act as a ‘protection of other communities’ regarding the use of public utilities by a local government,” he said. “Then we’ll see how it plays out with the force of the state law versus the contract signed by Bluffdale under the assumption that the NSA would be acting legally, because that’s the assumption of any legal contract in the first place. The NSA is not acting legally, and anybody who says otherwise is just nuts.”



###

The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.

