Proposed Henry County data center raises environmental concerns

NEW CASTLE — Kiley Blalock wants Henry County’s economy to grow, but not at the expense of the area’s electricity and water resources.

A location near Interstate 70 and Indiana 109 is being considered as the possible site of a 585-acre technology park, which would include a data center.

“It’s an opportunity for us,” said Corey Murphy, president of the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corporation.

Murphy suggested an influx of data centers would recall the former prominence of the automotive industry, which for decades supported several municipalities in the region.

Blalock, whose family owns land near the proposed data center site, isn’t so sure. She believes developers want to move forward without knowing many details, including the potential impact on the county’s water resources.

“We’re on top of a New Castle aquifer,” Blalock said. “We’ve asked them to do environmental studies, bring in environmental engineers. We need an assessment from the United States Geological Survey.

“The data center developers don’t want to pay for that up front,” she continued. “They want to get the land, rezone it, buy it and take the risk of sitting on it.”

The Indiana Finance Authority has been studying water resources in regions throughout the state, including studies in the northwest and near Lake Michigan.

Regional studies supply the foundation for a statewide comprehensive water plan, which functions similarly to a comprehensive plan used by local municipalities. They provide information that state officials use to make decisions concerning land use and development opportunities.

Experts have noted that counties could be divided into regions according to the major bodies of water that flow through them. Stakeholders from throughout the region will form a board that will make recommendations based on the plan. Any formal decisions would require approval from the Indiana Legislature.

Discussions about a state water plan have garnered more attention in recent years as debate continues over a pipeline that would supply water to the limitless exploration, advanced pace — or LEAP — Innovation District, a proposed 10,000-acre development in Boone County.

The proposed high-tech park is expected to house companies like Eli Lilly and Meta. Many people who have spoken out against the development have questioned whether Boone County has sufficient water resources to supply a project that could eventually require piping as much as 100 million gallons of water a day from the Wabash River.

In Henry County, Blalock worries that companies using millions of gallons of water per day without plans to replenish those supplies could lead to irreparable damage.

“We’re seeing issues throughout the state,” she said. “When we hear Gov. Braun say, ‘We do not have an abundance of water, except up north and along the Ohio River Valley,’ we’re going, ‘Why are you trying to build out here and draw out our aquifers?’

“In those areas, we have families, there’s an RV park, gas stations with showers. If there’s any impact on the water, there’s a lot of people and businesses that are going to be in a really bad spot,” Blalock continued.

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a large data center uses up to five million gallons of water per day, the equivalent of a population of 50,000 people.

Data centers use water primarily for cooling the hardware. Some cooling systems require less water than others. Microsoft recently announced that all of its data centers will utilize a closed-loop cooling system, which uses recycled water instead of fresh water. Developers of the Henry County project have proposed using a similar type of system, but those plans have not been formalized.

Data centers also use large amounts of electricity, which, some worry, could result in higher costs for the average ratepayer.

Braun pointed to legislation he signed into law in May that requires data centers to pay at least 80% of costs needed to accommodate additional burdens on the electrical grid.

“We still have to make sure that we’ve got enough generation capacity, but it’s got to also be done taking the ratepayer in mind,” Braun told WRTV.

Murphy said developers for the Henry County project want to use natural gas to generate their electricity, which he noted would not affect the county’s electrical customers.