Why We Need an Aquifer Alliance.

There’s a trend that’s been developing—with the increasing prevalence of AI, the pervasiveness of ALPR (Flock) cameras, the invasive collection of ever more metadata—Big Tech needs more compute. In the past 8 years the number of data centers has more than doubled in the state of Georgia, with dozens more in the planning, proposal, and construction phases.

If you’re asking yourself, “Why do we need an Aquifer Alliance?” understanding that trend line might be explanation enough. But there is more—here in the Goodlife City, there have been no public disclosures, no announced plans, and even outright denials by the mayor. And yet, a City Commissioner felt compelled to defend the opportunity to the public and the City Manager is launching a series of Town Hall events to sell the idea. To me, that says that even if there isn’t an interested party, members of our local government are going to great lengths to lay out the welcome mat.

If it makes you suspicious, that’s understandable. Corporations across the country have taken to using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) along with a litany of dirty tactics to forestall and prevent public involvement for as long as possible. I don’t say this as an accusation; it is an acknowledgement of events that have taken place in other jurisdictions. Events that I hope we don’t experience here.

Let’s move past suspicion into the realm of things we know...

We know that during a Town Hall while discussing the Albany-Dougherty Comprehensive Plan, when asked about a potential data center, city employees stated that “there’s been inquiries, but no firm proposals.”

We know that city officials were approached by Hannah Solar and Verdant Solar who proposed doing a feasibility study to determine what scale of data center the city could accommodate—this agreement was to include a temporary moratorium until the study concluded. Currently, the grid feasibility proposal has not come up for a vote.

We know that the Albany-Dougherty Payroll Development Authority quietly re-zoned a 358-acre parcel on Oakhaven Drive for M-1 (light industrial).

We know that the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission recently announced procurement of a $135,000 grant from the state’s OneGeorgia Authority to advance development of the Pecan Grove Industrial Park toward a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) Certification. This certification confers a “shovel-ready” condition for the site by frontloading environmental, infrastructure, and geotechnical studies to shorten lead time for a project.

Many of these actions are run-of-the-mill for a municipal government, but when partnered with the information campaign being led by City Leadership and with the understanding that Data Centers are the booming industry in our state, it leads us to one clear conclusion: even without a firm proposal, city leaders are rolling out the red carpet to invite them in.

Enter the Sowega Aquifer Alliance, we’re a small group of individuals from varying backgrounds who share one goal: to protect our people, resources, and ecology from the invasive industries that are targeting rural America for their next extraction of wealth. We believe the time to act to protect our communities is now!

In short order we’ve begun collecting and sharing data about the risks of data center development in rural communities to educate the public. We have filed requests under the Georgia Open Records Act with the goal of learning more details about the Hannah Solar agreement and any potential correspondences or agreements between city leaders and data center developers. And we are drafting proposal frameworks to protect our communities and their resources from unreasonable exploitation.

Immediately, we are asking everyone to sign and share our petition on Change.org demanding our leaders enact a 12-month moratorium on data center development in our city to assess the risks and enact regulatory frameworks that will protect our people, resources, and ecology.

All our data and resources will be available online at www.bigbaddatacenters.com. Regular updates can be found by following the Sowega Aquifer Alliance on Facebook.

What began as a casual collaboration between voices in Lee and Dougherty Counties is growing and we will continue to add voices from across Southwest Georgia. While we prefer that no data center be built here, we acknowledge that may be dismissed as an unreasonable request—our modern world is underpinned by the exchange of digital information and developing new industry brings economic benefits to the region. Instead of asking for an all-out ban, we have decided to propose deliberate governance to ensure that any facility built will confer maximum benefit to the community while curtailing potential negative impacts on our people, resources and ecology.

This article focuses on events in Albany-Dougherty County, but our alliance is working to support ongoing efforts in Lee and Mitchell Counties as well, and we are interested in joining with concerned citizens across the region. You can find out more about our efforts and reach us through our website www.bigbaddatacenters.com.