VALAR WATCH
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374 facts · 512 sources · updated 2026-09-30

Fact gov-018

newrecordconfirmed The lab-side parcel Valar is buying sits in an Inland Port tax zone since Jan 2025: 75% of new property tax for 25 years
2025-01-06 · gov-018 · Utah Inland Port Authority, Valar Atomics, Emery County, Carbon County · projected property tax differential to the Castle Country project area over 25 years (plan budget): $72,900,000

The Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) board created the Castle Country Project Area on 24 June 2024 and enlarged it on 6 January 2025 (Amendment #1, +10,754 acres of Emery County parcels), 23 April 2026 (#2, Carbon County) and 21 May 2026 (#3); it now covers about 15,370 acres in Carbon and Emery counties including parts of Green River and Wellington. The plan's parcel list includes '04-0019-0030', labelled 'San Rafael Energy Research Center', in Section 24, T18S R7E; that is the 112.7-acre parcel Emery County let Valar test for site suitability in February 2026 and matches the roughly 110 acres Valar says it is buying (mine-046). The plan sends 75% of the growth in property tax to UIPA for 25 years (extendable 15), 25% to local taxing entities, projecting $72.9M to the project area; UIPA may use it for business incentives and public infrastructure districts. UIPA staff told its board on 4 August 2026 that Valar's operations 'will be expanding into the Castle Country project area', and UIPA's 10 September update says Valar 'has also purchased' more than 100 acres there. The only Castle Country business incentive on the board's 2026 agendas is for Anson Resources (3 September 2026); no UIPA incentive for Valar was found as of 29 September 2026. Tax-differential collection starts only when UIPA 'triggers' parcels by board resolution; its 2026 Castle Country trigger resolution (16 March 2026) covers only the Fossil Rock Area parcels, not 04-0019-0030. The parcel was placed in the zone in January 2025, four months before OED's MOU with Valar (gov-011). On 19 May 2026 the Emery County Commission voted to remove the parcel from the project area; UIPA's later records still include it (gov-023).

In plain termsThe land next to the state lab that Valar is buying has been inside a state 'Inland Port' tax zone since January 2025. In such a zone, most of the new property taxes a big development generates, 75 cents of every new dollar for 25 years, go to the state port authority rather than to the county and schools, and the authority can hand some back to companies as incentives. Valar has not been given a port incentive so far. If the parcel stays in the zone and the port authority 'triggers' it (so far it has triggered only other parcels there), the zone would decide where much of the property tax on Valar's development goes.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read the Amendment #3 plan (parcel in the Amendment #1 legal descriptions, 15,370.25 acres, 75%/25%, 25+15 years, $72.9M), the 4 Aug minutes, the 10 Sept post and the 2026 UIPA agendas (Mar-Oct; only Castle Country incentive is Anson) 2026-09-29. Fixed: plain overstated; the trigger resolution (read) shows collection has not been started on the Valar parcel.

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