LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) — The debate over a proposed data center in Lowndes County intensified at a Tuesday town hall, with experts from Atlanta joining local residents in calling for leaders to pause and study the project's long-term impacts.
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Amy Sharma, PhD with Science for Georgia, and Hannah Baker with Sierra Club Georgia urged residents to examine how the development could affect utility rates and infrastructure. The facility is planned west of the Foxborough subdivision.
"All the people that decide what your rates are, they get lobbied by a lot of really expensive lobbyists from other places, but no one's there representing the regular rate payers," Sharma said.
Baker called for a public hearing on implementing a moratorium to slow new data center approvals while officials study potential impacts on water usage, power demand, and infrastructure.
"Can you please consider hosting a public hearing so we can give public comment on this idea of a moratorium and then put this in place basically just to slow the spread? That's the big talking point. We want a moratorium. We just need more time to know what this is going to look like," Baker said.
The town hall was organized by Lowndes Citizens Against Data Centers, Alpha Kappa Alpha Upsilon, and the Valdosta State University Anthropology Club, and it brought together voices from across South Georgia concerned about the growing trend of data centers moving into rural areas.
However, supporters argue the economic opportunity is significant. Pope Langdale, the landowner working with DC BLOX to bring the development to Valdosta, said the company's CEO informed him the facility could create up to 400 jobs with an average salary of $135,000 annually.
"This has never happened in our community. We've never brought a business with that many jobs at that high wage. The tax revenue to the county and the city would be enormous, enough that, even if county governments wanted to, they could eliminate probably the property taxes," Langdale said.
Residents said they felt shut out of the decision-making process. Water usage emerged as a major concern. Data centers can use more than a million gallons of water daily to cool equipment, potentially putting local wells and aquifers at risk.
The opposition reflects a growing nationwide movement, with more than 140 activist groups across 24 states pushing back against new data center projects. In 2025, St. Charles, Missouri passed the nation's first year-long ban on data center construction, and several Georgia cities, including parts of Atlanta, approved restrictions or moratoriums.
The debate has reached the state level. Governor Brian Kemp vetoed House Bill 1192 in 2024, which would have paused Georgia's sales tax exemption for data centers.
Critics argue that while data centers are marketed as job creators, rural governments may lose tax revenue due to exemptions while facing increased costs for infrastructure upgrades and public services.
Similar opposition in other states has already delayed or canceled billions of dollars in projects, as residents say they feel their voices go unheard against millions of dollars in development funding.
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