I wrote yesterday that Maryland has a proposal to cut off water and electricity to the NSA data center.

And now a Utah Legislator is proposing to cut off water to the NSA data center.

Utah legislator to propose halting water to NSA data center

Legislation » The bill also would prohibit universities from partnering with NSA.

By Nate Carlisle

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published 5 hours ago • Updated 16 minutes ago

A state representative wants to shut down the National Security Agency’s Utah Data Center by shutting off their water, but has not yet filed a bill that he acknowledges has little chance of passing.

Rep. Marc Roberts, R-Santaquin, has entered what is called a boxcar bill labeled "Prohibition on Electronic Data Collection Assistance." The bill had not been formally filed as of late Wednesday, and no draft had been posted online.

And not only is Utah thinking of cutting off water it is cutting off access to the local university.

The bill would do more than shut off water to the Utah Data Center, which needs the water to cool the massive facility in Bluffdale. Mike Maharrey, the national communications director at the Tenth Amendment Center, said he has seen a draft of the bill and it would also prevent Utah’s public universities from partnering with the NSA and prohibit businesses from receiving state contracts if they also do business with the NSA.

The universities provision would impact the University of Utah, which for years has received NSA grants to conduct mathematics research and recently created, at the NSA’s request, a course teaching data center management.

If the NSA thought a PR problem was bad, running a data center without water is impossible.