{ "archive_path": "archive/1791669836.81431", "base_url": "cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma", "basename": "", "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-10 22:03", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=cdispatch.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/index.html" }, "domain": "cdispatch.com", "extension": "", "hash": "E9FJ8RX8F5H9BER9S9E1", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=cdispatch.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:23.674321+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:23.154823+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:24.056318+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:23.682274+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:41.359900+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:37.590412+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpjha2l5nn", "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:37.577203+00:00", "index_texts": [ "Data centers are talking to the Golden Triangle Development LINK every day.\nAfter Meryl Fisackerly shared this simple, but true, statement at a Columbus Exchange Club meeting in August, the CEO of the region\u2019s economic development arm caught hell for it.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tMeryl Fisackerly\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cI got threatening emails (after it was reported),\u201d Fisackerly told The Dispatch Wednesday at her office near Golden Triangle Regional Airport. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019ve got people telling me they\u2019re going to show up at my doorstep, and I\u2019ve got three kids. I don\u2019t need somebody egging my house or burning a cross in my yard because I\u2019m working a data center. That\u2019s the situation that unfortunately \u2026 the LINK has gotten into or the communities have gotten into.\u201d\nBut Fisackerly insists the LINK is not recruiting or marketing to \u201cdata centers\u201d \u2013 which can range from small crypto-mining spaces to hyper-scale centers used for cloud storage or artificial intelligence. It is vetting data centers \u201clike any other industry.\u201d\n\u201cIt\u2019s a normal economic development job in an environment where data center developers are now one of the many types of industrial developments and prospects that we\u2019re seeing,\u201d she said.\nStill, those developers are calling daily, pitching projects that range widely in investment and footprint, carrying the potential of anywhere from 30 to 500 jobs, Fisackerly said. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the power supplier for much of North Mississippi, now has a dedicated data center development team due to the rise in inquiries it is receiving.\nAll of this comes in the face of rising public backlash to data centers generally, especially after the development of Elon Musk\u2019s xAI plant in De Soto County that started in 2025 and is now facing a class-action lawsuit, primarily citing environmental and noise concerns.\nArmed with plenty of industrial real estate in Lowndes, Clay and Oktibbeha counties, including the TVA-certified CINCO Megasite on Highway 82 across from the regional airport, Fisackerly does not rule out a large data center landing in the Golden Triangle. The developers that have approached the LINK so far, she said, aren\u2019t \u201cquite far along in their process to do it.\u201d\n\u201cAre you asking will we ever get a hyperscaler? That\u2019s not off the table,\u201d Fisackerly said, in response to why The LINK hasn\u2019t already landed a major data center project. \u201cIt\u2019s just, you haven\u2019t gotten one yet. There\u2019s really no magic answer to that. Same reason why you don\u2019t have an end user on CINCO. Somebody just hasn\u2019t pulled the trigger on it.\n\u201c\u2026 The LINK is in the game of economic development, and a data center is considered economic development when you look at job creation and increasing your tax base. No ifs, ands or buts about it,\u201d she added. \u201c\u2026 I mean, is this community open for business?\u201d\nWhat are data centers?\nData centers are simply buildings that house internet-connected computers.\nThe hundreds \u2013 sometimes thousands \u2013 of computers running around the clock require large amounts of electricity for cooling. That power can either be generated on-site \u2013 like with the xAI power plant in Southaven, or drawn from the grid \u2013 like with Amazon Web Service\u2019s facilities in Madison County.\nData centers also use water to cool equipment, typically by circulating it through cooling systems or evaporating the water into the air to dissipate heat. Many use reclaimed or recycled wastewater or operate a \u201cclosed-loop system.\u201d Others continually pull water from aquifers.\nABI Research, a global technology intelligence and market advisory firm, reports there were nearly 2,400 data centers operating in the U.S. last year, with AWS owning the most. Other leaders in the hyperscale market include Microsoft, Meta, Google and Oracle.\nThose companies have dedicated teams for finding sites to locate data centers, Fisackerly said. Third-party developers that build data centers on spec are a different story, she said, and are likely unviable partners for the Golden Triangle.\n\u2018Send \u2018em to me\u2019\nJoey Deason, executive director for the Madison County Economic Development Authority, parks his pickup in front of a fence overlooking the Entergy-certified Madison Megasite outside Canton.\nBehind him is an Amazon Fulfillment Center. To the north, a Clark Beverage Company plant.\nNeither is the purpose of the stop.\n\u201cLet\u2019s listen to the big, bad data centers,\u201d he told a Dispatch reporter along for the ride before walking up to a fence overlooking five operational AWS data centers.\nWhatever noise the data centers make is drowned out by the traffic buzzing by on Nissan Parkway.\n\u201cIt\u2019s literally a non-event,\u201d Deason said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what all the complaining is about.\u201d\nThose five AI data centers are part of the first phase of AWS\u2019s planned $21 billion investment in the county, which will build 34 data centers total \u2013 17 each at the Madison Megasite and at another campus in Ridgeland over the next decade. The project will add $100 million in new ad valorem revenue to the county\u2019s coffers annually in just the first phase, with that figure rising to more than $200 million once the buildout completes. Madison County, alone, approved a budget of $213 million for Fiscal Year 2027, compared to $130 million five years ago.\n\u201cThat\u2019s roads, parks, bridges, infrastructure, new practice facilities for the football team, a new school,\u201d said Deason, who cut his teeth for four years working for the LINK before taking his role at MCEDA in 2017. \u201c\u2026 In my opinion, it\u2019s a perfect fit for the Golden Triangle.\u201d\nWhen AWS started building its data centers in 2023, no one really complained, save for the residents of neighborhoods adjacent to the construction site, Deason said. After Musk\u2019s controversial buildout in Southaven, that changed.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJoey Deason, executive director for the Madison County Economic Development Authority, looks out Tuesday at the five Amazon Web Services data centers located at the Madison Megasite near Canton. AWS is investing $21 billion to build 34 data centers in Madison County over the next decade. Zack Plair/Dispatch Staff\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nSince then, he\u2019s heard it all: Data centers are bad neighbors. They don\u2019t create enough jobs. They use too much power and water. They make too much noise.\nThe reality in Madison County, Deason said, is very different. AWS has already hired 750 employees of a planned workforce of 1,700 for its campuses there, with 60% of the hires so far being Mississippians.\nNoise is held to 50 decibels, or what Deason said is \u201cabout the volume of a normal conversation.\u201d Since the first centers have come online, the city of Ridgeland passed an ordinance requiring future data center developments to follow those same standards.\nAWS uses reclaimed wastewater to help cool its centers, usually in the hottest months of July and August. The rest of the year, it uses alternative methods, such as air and other liquid coolant. Even at that, their annual water use has dropped from 179 million gallons in 2023 to 83 million gallons now.\nTheir power use, Deason said, is \u201cconfidential,\u201d though he admitted they are \u201clarge power users\u201d hooked up to the Entergy grid. Still, AWS has heavily invested in improving the grid, even replacing an old Entergy power station to keep those costs from passing onto the customers.\nMoreover, Deason insists, AWS pays for its own power.\n\u201cI\u2019m telling you it doesn\u2019t make any noise,\u201d Deason said. \u201cI\u2019m telling you it uses less water than three golf courses. \u2026 I\u2019m telling you the data centers are paying for the power. You\u2019re not. \u2026 And it\u2019s quieter than a steel mill, I can tell you that.\u201d\nPossibly the most compelling case for AWS data centers, Deason said, not a single homeowner near at least the Madison Megasite has put up a \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign in the last three years. In fact, he argues those home values are likely rising, if Loudoun County, Virginia, is any proof. There, where there are 328 operational data centers and 48 under construction, neighboring home values have skyrocketed, he said.\nStill, Deason knows a data center development won\u2019t come with community consensus, especially with such a negative public narrative forming around them.\n\u201cDo you hold a town hall? Probably not. \u2026 You work with your elected officials. You work with your private partner, like the LINK. That\u2019s the core,\u201d Deason said. \u201c\u2026 If it\u2019s specific to a neighborhood, you work with the neighborhood. \u2026 If I had to answer every single social media post that was negative, I wouldn\u2019t get anything done.\n\u201c\u2026 In your community, you have the right to say no, \u2026 for whatever reason, but at least get your facts straight,\u201d he added. \u201cThen if you still don\u2019t want them, God bless you. Send \u2018em to me.\u201d\nGamechangers or mouse traps?\nA crypto-mining center trying to locate on Industrial Park Road in Starkville met substantial crowds during public hearings this summer at City Hall. None were there to offer support for the project.\nInstead, they asked questions about resource use, pollution, scale, whether the noise would harm animals housed at the nearby Oktibbeha County Humane Society shelter.\nFor each question, no answer followed that satisfied the masses, and the Planning and Zoning Commission denied the company the special permit it needed to operate a crypto-mining center. The board of aldermen later ratified the decision.\n\u201cThe crypto center did set a tone because, for whatever reason and I don\u2019t agree with it, there was some sort of moral outrage about crypto, and to me, it is a business to be abused or used properly like any other business,\u201d Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch. \u201cNow did they make their case? No.\u201d\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tLynn Spruill\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nThat tone, Spruill said, could also color how residents view future data center developments of any stripe or scale, which she finds unfortunate. For one, there are already four data centers on Mississippi State University\u2019s campus that have neither garnered nor earned any pushback. That\u2019s to say nothing of growing consumer habits that make data centers necessary.\n\u201cIf you use Google or you use a chatbot, which people are doing daily, then you are using what this is providing to you,\u201d Spruill said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s incredibly short-sighted for us not to look at them on an individualized basis. \u2026 I think they serve a purpose, and I would certainly hate that they don\u2019t even get a fair hearing because of the, I guess, abuses that are occurring in other locations that\u2019s spilling over into the concept in its entirety.\u201d\nThe kind of investment they bring can be a \u201cgamechanger,\u201d Spruill said, and she would love to land one, especially at the NorthStar Industrial Park off Highway 389, where there is 30 megawatts of unused power available \u2013 enough to support a large regional facility but not a hyperscaler.\nSpruill believes the city\u2019s special permit requirement for data centers, as well as noise limits and other requirements contained in its Unified Development Code, are sufficient to vet for and regulate \u201cgood neighbors.\u201d\nShe expects the LINK would bring projects worthy of consideration, in any case.\nBut Trip Hairston, president for the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, doesn\u2019t believe the CINCO Megasite is the best place for a large or hyperscale data center. He\u2019s not even sure the Golden Triangle is the best fit.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTrip Hairston\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nThose data centers require internet infrastructure not available in this area. While Lowndes County typically builds out utilities like power, water and sewer for locating industries, Hairston does not believe the county should do likewise for internet needs for data centers, an industry he called \u201cmouse-trap dependent.\u201d\nAs technology changes, he explained, once large facilities get smaller, it could cause hyperscale data centers to constrict and empty over time.\n\u201cI may be wrong (but) I think the mouse trap is going to change,\u201d Hairston said. \u201cI think that the chips are going to improve, that they will find ways to put these things maybe in space, in a different way that doesn\u2019t upset communities the way they\u2019re being upset now with just the very thought of them.\u201d\n\u201cMost people will say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s take the good while we got the good, and not worry so much about the bad.\u2019 And there\u2019s nothing wrong with that thought process at all,\u201d he added, noting he would not \u2018stiff-arm\u2019 a billion-dollar investment without a fair hearing. \u201cBut when it comes down to spending a bunch of money to put the infrastructure in to attract the data center, that\u2019s a whole different story.\u201d\nJosh Hendrickson, chair and professor of economics at the University of Mississippi, said data centers and modern manufacturing facilities have complementary infrastructure needs, meaning investments made to support one may also attract the other.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJosh Hendrickson\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cFurthermore, because data centers are large and able to support a great deal of weight, the facilities themselves can be adaptable to other uses in the event that technology changes, or the data center leaves and shuts down,\u201d he wrote in an email to The Dispatch.\nHendrickson said he\u2019s been surprised to see how little some data center developers appear to be doing to build goodwill with communities where they locate.\n\u201cAn older generation of industrialists tended to attenuate these concerns by investing directly in the community by funding a new library for the local high school and/or sponsoring the local football field to provide resources for upgrades and maintenance,\u201d he said.\nThose investments ensured communities that a company\u2019s commitment wasn\u2019t fleeting, Hendrickson said.\n\u201cI\u2019m not saying that is what these companies need to do now or what should be expected of them,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I\u2019m surprised they are not doing things like this to generate goodwill given the recent backlash and concerns.\u201d\nToo much to bear\nTaylor Logsdon used to host weekly get-togethers in the backyard of her Southaven home, where her family has lived for nearly 11 years.\nBut now Logsdon said the noise from a hyperscale data center owned by xAI and the power plant acquired by the company to power it, both located about 0.3 miles from her backyard, have become too much for the family to bear.\nWhat started as \u201cannoying\u201d but tolerable construction noises escalated to a constant buzz after more than 40 gas-powered turbines were installed at the plant to replace previously unpermitted turbines. The noise started keeping her family awake at night, and Logsdon said her kids can\u2019t play outside for long before developing a headache.\nLogsdon and other residents living near the data center formed the Safe and Sound Coalition, which advocates for \u201cclean air, quiet nights, responsible growth and honest leadership.\u201d She and other residents have even filed a class action lawsuit against xAI, alleging \u201ccombination of high-pitched squealing, continuous engine roaring, low-frequency rumbling and tonal humming\u201d has degraded their quality of life.\n\u201cWe are hoping that we can enjoy our properties again, like the ways that we used to,\u201d Logsdon said of the lawsuit.\nDespite her experience, Logsdon doesn\u2019t believe all data center developments are bad. But she said officials have to include community members in the process of considering whether a data center is the right fit for a community.\nFor example, when a conditional use permit was approved for a data center in St. Louis earlier this year, the city set a number of conditions for the development aimed at addressing concerns raised by residents, including requiring a closed-loop system to minimize water consumption and at least 50% of the energy load needed for the facility coming from renewable sources within five years, according to a city press release issued in April.\nThe city also negotiated a community benefits agreement with the developer, backed by financial penalties, wherein the company will meet escalating job growth minimums for 20 years and contribute an estimated $15 million to a city fund to use for multi-modal enhancements and economic and environmental justice activities, among other things.\n\u201cI would definitely (recommend looking) into the aspects of what kind of data center it\u2019s going to be,\u201d Logsdon said. \u201cThey need to know about how much water they\u2019re going to be using, if they\u2019re bringing power or hooking up to a grid. Those are big questions that need to be asked.\u201d\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n \n \n Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:35.630226+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:35.622753+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "The data center dilemma - The Dispatch", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:35.593739+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:35.582691+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/index.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-11T01:30:24.063981+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "The data center dilemma - The Dispatch", "warc": null, "wget": "cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/index.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1791669836.81431", "newest_archive_date": "2026-10-11T01:30:37.590412+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-10-11T01:30:23.154823+00:00", "path": "/news/the-data-center-dilemma/", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "f7ae6ecf-f541-47d2-a0ce-5e4e4cf2b307", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1791669836-import.txt" ], "tags": ",war-wiki,pool,cdispatch_local", "tags_str": "war-wiki,pool,cdispatch_local", "timestamp": "1791669836.81431", "title": "The data center dilemma - The Dispatch", "updated": "2026-10-11T01:30:23.154658+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-10-11 01:30", "url": "https://cdispatch.com/news/the-data-center-dilemma/" }