Table of Contents
THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
Granite Construction Company appears to have nearly finished grading a frontage road off Exit 132 to provide access to the proposed 635-acre, I-80 South Quarry, two miles up Parleys Canyon.
This despite the fact that almost four years after announcing the project, the property owner, Tree Farm LLC, whose principal is Jesse Lassley, is unlikely to secure a conditional use permit from Salt Lake County to proceed with the development of the quarry (see the COURT CASE update below).
The road is being constructed on Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) right-of-way. UDOT is required to allow property owners along the freeway to develop access to their property.
The road plan also required a stream alteration permit to enclose a section of Smith’s Creek coming out of Mt Aire Canyon. Granite was authorized to do this by the Utah Division of Water Rights, which also is unable to deny such permits if the applicant meets all of the state’s criteria- even if the road over the stream is unlikely to ever be used!
The before and after photos of the frontage road, shown below reveal all you need to know about what 635 acres (1 square mile) of the Parleys Canyon hillside up to the Millcreek ridge will look like if Granite Construction is allowed to proceed with this project.
AIR QUALITY PERMIT
On August 8, 2025, Granite Construction submitted a “New Source Review Notice of Intention” (NSR NOI) to the Utah Division of Air Quality for a permit to generate air pollution at the proposed I-80 South Quarry in Parleys Canyon.
This unexpected “start over” is occurring nearly three years after Granite submitted their original air pollution permit request. That application had gone through extensive review, public comment, revision, further review, and, we were told, was on the cusp of being approved by DAQ. This reset has left everyone who has been monitoring this project scratching their heads. From what we can decipher so far, Granite Construction lowered the estimate of “material throughput” (i.e. the amount of rock excavated, crushed and transported out from the pit each day) and has started the entire air pollution permitting process over again.
This raises important questions.
- Has Granite realized that their initial assumptions about the amount of dust that would blow into the Salt Lake Valley are wrong?
- Does Granite lack access to the amount of water required by the Division of AIr Quality to suppress the dust that would have been generated by their initial “throughput” targets?
- Granite and Tree Farm have been asserting from the outset that the destruction of lower Parleys Canyon is justified to meet a market demand for sand, gravel and aggregate. But two separate studies last year, that were commissioned by Salt Lake County and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, concluded that there wasn’t an urgent demand for this material.
- Does Granite now concede that these studies were correct and that there is not a market for the material this gravel pit would generate?
COURT CASE
In 2022, Tree Farm filed a legal challenge against Salt Lake County, claiming that, because they have “vested mining rights” that supersede the County’s prohibition on new gravel pits in the Wasatch Canyons. the County must issue them a conditional use permit to proceed to develop the proposed I-80 South Quarry in partnership with Granite Construction
The case is assigned to the Third District Court and the parties are still in the “discovery” phase- exchanging documents related to how each side intends to argue their case. The case is unlikely to be heard before the judge for several months. And no matter how the court rules, the decision is likely to be appealed to the Utah Supreme Court by whichever party does not prevail. Therefore, a decision in the case is unlikely to be finalized for at least a couple of years.
Over the past three legislative sessions, efforts have been made to amend Utah’s mining laws, seemingly aimed at increasing the likelihood that the courts will rule in favor of allowing the Tree Farm/Granite project to move forward. In the most recent legislative session, the sand and gravel industry, local governments, and the legislature hammered out compromise language about the property rights of gravel pit owners that did not create such a loophole for the I-80 South Quarry in Parleys Canyon.
THE ON GOING FIGHT!
The proposed I-80 South Quarry in Parleys Canyon is NOT a done deal, but it’s also not dead yet. Save Parleys is working with several non-profit groups who share our concerns. Together we are actively opposing this project and working to prevent Granite Construction from generating massive amounts of air pollution, destroying scenic views and wildlife habitat in the Wasatch Mountains, and diverting a huge amount water from the Great Salt Lake.
Tree Farm and Granite Construction must think that they can outlast and outspend us, and that we will eventually get tired of fighting and give up. Granite fought the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians over the proposed “Liberty Quarry” project in California, which the tribe considered sacred land. It took seven years of opposition by the tribe before Granite backed down.
Let your city, county and state legislative representatives know that you are keeping a close eye on this issue and ask them to do everything they can to stop it.
