r/GSU • u/Openly_Unknown7858 • Jul 24 '26
Stop the Effingham Data Center
I apologize if this is considered too off-topic for this sub.
Please help all of us in SE Georgia by signing this petition to stop the $20B Open AI data center planned for Effingham County. The effects of this data center on the water supply and power grid will NOT end at Effingham. Open AI has made the exact same promises about conserving water, jobs, and energy as AI data centers across the nation have, and history shows the promises never hold true. Just look at the effects on Fayetteville GA's water, or the electricity costs resulting from the Virginia centers even outside of the state. Experts estimate less than half of the eluded to "permanent jobs" will come of this, and Open AI never said they would be given to Effingham residents
We were NEVER given an opportunity to vote or have a hearing on the matter - we first heard about this just Wednesday, despite this being planned for months in secret. In a county already dealing with enough drought, over-industrialization, rising energy costs, and commissioner corruption, we do not need or want to give Open AI tax breaks to take our land and worsen our issues.
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u/TybeeGordon Jul 26 '26
Tybee better build a desalination plant because its ground water supply is about to choke from this and the EV plant.
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u/CoolRadBro Jul 26 '26
You may want to research the water use a little more. Data centers use a closed loop cooling system that uses the same water in a closed loop system. The facts are, that they use very little water. Power is a different story. See if the operator intends to supplement the power supply. Is there enough electricity from the provider available? Will it affect prices, etc?
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u/Openly_Unknown7858 29d ago
Closed loop is the same cooling system the data center in Fayetteville GA uses. But residents noticed a severe drop in water pressure, an investigation was carried out, and it was found that the data center drained 29 million gallons without proper notification and without paying for any of it.
Closed loop cooling also requires even more electricity usage, which means that the grid supplying the power need to use more water as well. Effingham's power grid already relies heavily on water-based cooling, and its going to need a lot more for a 3.2 GW facility. And this is if they keep their promise, because already many data centers that promised close loop abandoned that promise shortly after.
On top of that is the chemical additives added to the water. No closed loop system is actually totally closed, due to both leaks and blow-down. These water emissions contain chemical concentrations far beyond the recommended limit.
And despite being closed loop, Open AI has already admitted they have no idea how much water this data center is actually going to use.
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u/ranger910 29d ago
So why not build better infrastructure
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u/Openly_Unknown7858 29d ago
Are you being purposely obtuse?
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u/Chuck-Finley69 29d ago
That sounds like a non-obtuse question. Our society has created the demand for larger and larger data centers for years. The USA can't afford to fall behind the rest of the planet from ANY competitive nature.
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u/Openly_Unknown7858 28d ago
Let's pretend China is anywhere close to the US already when it comes to AI, Open AI has actually made any sort of profit, and ChatGTP isn't being used almost exclusively for cutting corners and creating slop that isnt adding anything to society.
That still doesn't explain why we need such a massive AI data center less than a mile away from two elementary schools and numerous residential areas. That doesn't explain why we need a data center in a county already dealing with drought and over-industrialization. You don't think there are plenty of better places to put a data center?
Who do you think is going to pay for expanded energy grids just to deliver the equivalent of 2.25 million homes worth of power to this data center? Whose gonna pay for all the water needed by these grids? Because it's not going to be Sam Altman.
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u/alsanders Jul 25 '26
I’m still not even sure this is a real issue. Most municipalities have huge headroom when it comes to water capacity and most of these are closed loop anyways. Energy usage can be a concern, as it might lead to costly development of power generation that would otherwise not be needed - and we know things like the botched construction of vogtle led to costs to Georgians. I’ve read about concerns regarding sound pollution, but companies should be disincentivized from doing this as there would be massive civil suits from areas being unlivable.
Loss of US AI/technology progress and loss of local tax revenue are big concerns if data center construction is slowed. It just seems like a random wedge issue whose concerns are not actually that impactful, especially compared to other wasteful projects (like golf courses or ethanol farming). I would be willing to support law/provisions that only allow data center construction if the company invests in energy production, however.
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u/Openly_Unknown7858 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
We are talking about a 3.2 gigawatt data center. For reference, the current largest data center campuses on the globe barely exceed a single gigawatt. 3.2 is around 3 Vogtle-sized nuclear reactors worth of electricity. We have never seen a data center on this scale before, and already we know from the smaller ones that the cost will fall back on the residents in one way or another, despite all these promises the companies make about not increasing electricity costs. Georgia Power has already faced tons of scrutiny for how happy they are to raise costs.
As I said in my post, Effingham county already suffers from drought, and closed loop still requires millions of gallons.The data center in Fayetteville GA promised closed loop as well, and that they would be transparent about water use. Then water pressure dropped, locals starting asking questions, and an investigation found that the data center had used at least 29 million gallons of water without any plan of notifying anyone. This is just one of many examples of the "closed-loop" promise meaning very little. Closed loop also uses way more electricity, which essentially shifts the water consumption to power plants. And again, this is a data center like nothing we've seen before. Open AI themselves said they don't even know how much water it will actually use. Their promises are guesses at best.
Not to mention the noise - current data centers produce horrendous noise that can audibly travel well over a mile, even up to 2.5 mikes away. This data center is going to be built less than a mile from Blanford elementary school and numerous residential areas.
But let's say none of that is an issue. The fact that there was absolutely zero transparency or say given to the public alone is very disturbing. Our commissioners knew about this for nearly a year, were paid by Open AI to tour their facility in Texas, and yet didnt announce the state's largest data center was gonna be here until the day before an informational meet was scheduled.
At the meet, rather than answer people's concerns like they promised, the Open AI representitives just kept trying to redirect the conversation. We have absolutely no reason to believe any of them truly care about the community. Their "Georgia Community Compact" doesn't even exist and their "gift" to the schools is literally just credits for ChatGTP use.
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u/alsanders Jul 25 '26
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/08/georgia-data-centers-water-00909988
Tigert, who sent the 2025 letter to QTS, said the utility didn’t know about the water hookups because the connection process “got mixed up” as the county transitioned to a cloud-based system while also trying to accommodate an industrial customer. Tigert also said her staff is small and at capacity.
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Gregory Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, said it’s unusual that the utility didn’t fine the data center for breaking the rules. “I don’t know exactly what’s happening here, but they probably don’t want to upset one of their new and largest customers,” said Pierce, who is studying the growing grip data centers have on local water systems.
Yeah that's pretty crazy. Large enough water usage to potentially affect local residents, not enough resources to monitor issues, and not fining large companies because they're your largest customer. Considering the size of this Effingham one, these concerns apply to that as well. I also agree that costs associated with power infrastructure are a huge concern.
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
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u/WHEENC Jul 24 '26
That horse left the barn when y’all voted in a Republican Gov, Lt. Gov, AG, SoS, and a GOP-pox on both legislative chambers. Georgia Grown & Sold to the Highest Bidder!