Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of data centers proposed for Georgia

A massive input center has been proposed in Butts County raising concerns about the Ocmulgee River Basin s maximum to assistance this and other planned records centers in the region Pictured are paddlers on the Ocmulgee River in Butts County Georgia Rivers Joe Cook A massive figures center project backed by Lt Gov Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County but a great number of of the project s details are still unknown Jones a Republican is running to be Georgia s next governor The Highway Interstate Soundness Advance near Interstate owned by Jones father is set to include a square-foot hospital million square feet of biological office space and million square feet of evidence centers making it one of the biggest facts centers currently planned in Georgia and placing it among the largest ever built by currently s standard Lt Gov Burt Jones speaks at a press conference about state wellness procedures in January Ross Williams Georgia Recorder The estimated billion project is expected to go through more than million gallons of water per day more than tripling Butts County s current water usage and generate nearly million per year in annual tax revenues when it is completed by That s just about all the information publicly available on the project and those details come from a two-page enhancement of regional impact filing that was submitted to the Georgia Department of Society Affairs The lack of information is a challenge for environmental advocates like Fletcher Sams executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper Here s what I don t know I don t know how a large number of megawatts it is I also don t know the cooling device that they will use to cool the chips he mentioned Those things are very significant for me to know because the concern that I have for the location of it is that it s in the upper Ocmulgee basin and I ve got other figures centers projected to come into that basin The issue that I have with that basin is that between now and that region is going to see approximately new residents Decision-making on statistics centers left to local representatives The Georgia Department of Locality Affairs just now approved new rules to bring large-scale evidence center developments under official state review but critics say the rules fail to fully account for the cumulative burden the facilities have on the state s ability and water supplies The amendments to its developments of regional impact process for the first time explicitly list technological facilities including facts centers This comes after a self-imposed pause in processing regional impact reviews for records centers that was meant to give the department time to clarify the rules DCA Commissioner Christopher Nunn declared during a legislative subcommittee meeting in August A few local governments began applying previous rules for impact reviews not intended for details centers since the projects did not fit under any of the previously specified maturation types leading to a lack of consistency across the state While other proposals for information centers moved forward without a state review during the months-long pause the Butts County enhancement includes a hospital and commercial areas which was enough to trigger a regional review Yet the main issue according to environmental advocates and region organizers is the limitations of the process itself The state s impact review process is designed to be a communication tool not a regulatory one This entirely ensures that neighbors are talking to neighbors that cities are talking to counties that other stakeholders are engaged in a process Nunn announced to the legislative subcommittee at the time stressing that his state agency serves merely as a repository for statistics and the final regional impact summary is purely advisory The local regime maintains the authority to make the final decision on whether a proposed growth will or will not go forward The reliance on local authorities autonomy and information sharing leaves the state s natural tools vulnerable to depletion environmental advocates say But for Butts County proponents of the mega project say the tax revenue would allow the county to advance and compete with neighboring metro areas Residents often have to voyage out of the county for several amenities which is not conducive to a good neighborhood commented county manager Brad Johnson He stated that the advancement called River Park would diversify the county s tax base which at the moment largely comes from residents We re looking forward for particular commercial or industrial tax generation to help take the burden off of our citizens so I think not just Butts County I think the entire region will benefit by the proposed project Johnson noted Dan Diorio vice president of state program at the Facts Center Coalition a national association for the details center industry mentioned in a letter submitted during the inhabitants comment period on the revised regional review process that any new rules should consider the economic benefits facts centers may bring Attempts to reach the coalition for a comment for this story were unsuccessful These tax revenues advocacy investments in region priorities like learning transportation and constituents safety that help enhance the quality of life for Georgians Diorio reported Butts County s planning commission is set to hear the developer s application to rezone the property to mixed-use improvement in December Johnson reported and the county commission can consider the application beginning in January starting with a citizens hearing Once rezoned developers can begin construction Concerns about water usage If you ve ever sat down to watch a movie with your laptop on your lap and felt your legs start to become uncomfortable from the warmth you know that computer components heat up when they re doing their jobs Content centers contain a lot more hardware than your laptop and perform complex calculations generating massive temperature increases Keeping everything cool enough to function requires a lot of water hundreds of thousands or millions of gallons per day and Sams stated it s just not clear whether Georgia s rivers can provide for all the planned figures centers plus population progress and the power necessities that come with that Of the facts centers that I am tracking in the Ocmulgee only nine have DRI information available Sams reported referring to the state impact review Of those nine they re going to withdraw close to million gallons on top of the other withdrawals Sams mentioned Georgia has seen concerns over water usage surrounding large projects in contemporary years pointing to the Bryan County Hyundai plant that has sparked concerns over water use I m worried about us over issuing withdrawal permits in the Ocmulgee basin for these input centers and for the power generation for the input centers when there is no backup Sams announced For years Georgia allowed the details center boom to expand without clear statewide metrics leading to what advocates call a material vacuum a term Kristen Stampfer director of Coastal Communities United a nonprofit working to preserve rural communities used in a letter submitted to DCA during a latest residents comment period These projects collectively represent an immense and largely unaccounted-for draw on Georgia s finite support The proposed Project Sail in Coweta County alone demonstrates the scale of the challenge its daily water use could reach million gallons and its potential demand of MW rivals that of a small city yet it falls outside a rigorous review Stampfer noted It s not sustainable It s not just water that has advocates concerned about the spike in evidence centers All that new digital number crunching demands a lot of electricity Georgia Power has claimed that evidence centers will consume about of the new power generated in Georgia through But like the water draw numbers projecting exactly how much of Georgia s juice will be squeezed out by statistics centers is a tough job says Amy Sharma executive director of Science for Georgia a science advocacy nonprofit If all the planned ones that we have located which by the way all of these numbers are estimates based on publicly available information like newspaper articles and like DRI reports and stuff like that So who knows We re not getting exact numbers from the details center developers themselves there s about plans for the state that would take up gigawatts Sharma stated According to the U S Department of Potential gigawatts is enough power to power billion LED lightbulbs It s just bonkers Sharma mentioned There s no other word for this besides bananas right Like it s just off the rails It s not sustainable Utility rates have been rising in Georgia and were a major issue for Democrats who flipped two seats presently held by Republicans on the five-seat Georgia Community Function Commission running on power affordability The two incumbents had voted to approve six rate increases over the last two years resulting in an estimated average annual increase of about for the average household The politics The Butts County property has been at the center of a political battle over hospital regulations and alleged self-dealing in the past Jones came under criticism in for a push to rewrite rules for new hospitals in a way critics noted was catered to allow for a hospital to be built on property owned by Jones father That effort fell short but Gov Brian Kemp signed a bill easing those hospital regulations last year Jones push toward loosening those restrictions has already become campaign fodder in the Republican gubernatorial primary Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce s Eggs and Issues event in Atlanta early in the legislative session Ross Williams Georgia Recorder Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr who is also jockeying to be the Republican candidate for governor next year accused Jones of using his office to line his family s pockets If you honor me by allowing me to be your next Governor unlike the Lt Governor I will promise you this I will not change the rules or rig the system to enrich myself or my family on your backs or the backs of our fellow Georgians Carr revealed on social media in October A billboard standing over the Butts County site reads Burt Jones billion family project Rewritten laws Family profits That s Burt Jones family payday The billboard was paid for by Keep Georgia Strong Action Inc an independent campaign group that supports Carr Jones spokesperson Kayla Lott dismissed the issue This is a simple rezoning application by a private company she revealed It s a nonstory As for Chris Carr he s not a serious candidate He s grasping at straws because he s stuck in a distant third place his fundraising has collapsed and the only people paying attention to him at this point are the ones on his payroll she added The post Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of figures centers proposed for Georgia appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta