Category Archives: Transparency

Datacenter Moratorium Proposed –Madison County BOCC 2026-07-08

Review, Project Arrowhead, DRI 4689, Irwin County, GA –SGRC 2026-05-14

Only two state agencies commented on the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) for the Project Arrowhead datacenter near the Alapaha River in Irwin County, Georgia:

the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council (SSRWPC) in one page, and
the DRI facilitator, the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC). Beyond a three-page summary at the beginning, the SGRC comments mostly consisted of the same 21 pages we already saw at the beginning of the comment period.

In the section of “Comments from Public Agencies” the other two letters are from the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) and from WWALS, which you have already seen.

Fifteen citizens commented in the section labeled “Comments from the Public – Non-official.” All were opposed to the datacenter.

For much more about datacenters, including who you can contact, petitions, and upcoming meetings, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

Review, Project Arrowhead, DRI 4689, Irwin County, GA –SGRC 2026-05-14, Comments from Public Agencies, Comments from the Public

I thank Irwin County Assistant County Manager Bonnie Kelly, Ed.D. and County Clerk Patricia Battle for each returning a copy of this document within minutes after I sent in an open records request this morning.

This is presumably the same document you can see the Irwin County Commissioners perusing in Videos: Datacenter Special Exception approved at Special Called Meeting of Irwin County BOCC 2026-05-20.

The document is on the WWALS website and images of each page are below. Continue reading →

Review and comment: DRI for Project Arrowhead Datacenter, Irwin County, GA 2026-04-24

Update 2026-06-01: Review, Project Arrowhead, DRI 4689, Irwin County, GA –SGRC 2026-05-14.

Update 2026-05-13: Project Arrowhead in Irwin County considered risk to Alapaha River and Floridan Aquifer –WWALS to SGRC about DRI 2026-05-11.

Everyone has two weeks, until Monday, May 11, 2026, to review and comment on the Development of Regional Importance (DRI) application by Project Arrowhead to build a huge datacenter in Irwin County, Georgia, near Irwinville and the Alapaha River.

The attachments SGRC sent are on the WWALS website, with images of each page below.

https://wwals.net/pictures/2026-04-24-dri-irwin-county-project-arrowhead

I see nothing from the applicant that WWALS hasn’t previously posted, such as when the DRI application appeared on April 10.

The Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) has helpfully annotated the Kimley-Horn site maps we saw back in March, and added other useful maps.

Plus SGRC points out the most significant part of the Data Center Ordinance the Irwin County Commission passed on April 6: the table permitting a Data Center as a Special Exception (SE) allowable use in the Agriculture (A-U), Heavy Industrial (H-I), and the Adult Commercial (C-A). I’m not sure that ordinance added SE for A-U, but it certainly called it out.

For much about what we do not know, such as who the real applicant is, or what closed loop cooling means in this case, see Who is Project Arrowhead in Irwin County, GA? –Vesper 2026-04-16.

https://wwals.net/?p=70067

For much more about Datacenters, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

Review and comment: DRI for Project Arrowhead Datacenter, Irwin County, GA, Comment to SGRC by May 11, 2026

Received by email Friday, April 24, 2026, at 7:32 PM: Continue reading →

SRWMD apparently does not know what were the 800 alternatives to WFNF 2026-04-24

Does the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) really not know what alternatives were considered before WFNF, and why they were rejected?

Or are they refusing to tell the public?

In either case, how are they representing the people of the Suwannee River Basin about Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin?

SRWMD apparently does not know the 800 alternatives to WFNF

Meanwhile, all dozen counties in the Suwannee District signed on to resolutions opposing NFWF by the Rivers Task Force and by the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC).

The members of the Task Force and Council are all elected officials, unlike the boards of the Suwannee and St. Johns River Water Management Districts and JEA, who are promoting WFNF.

For those resolutions and the letters and resolutions by individual counties and the Town of Branford, as well as who you can contact, and a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

On April 15, 2026, I sent SRWMD a public records request for the “over 800 initial alternatives to the four alternatives identified for additional study” to WFNF that were mentioned in a document they sent me. I included, “For each alternative, please include at least a description, along with reasons why it was rejected, and any relevant accompanying documentation.”

Today, April 23, I got a pretty nonresponsive reply, giving no descriptions nor reasons for rejection, with the excuse that, “The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) was not the managing entity for the contracts or investigations referenced in your request.”

The response even spells out that it is nonresponsive, “This is not a full response to your request, and at this time, the District is not aware of additional responsive records in its custody.”

They don’t even say who was the managing entity. I can only guess it was the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD). So today I sent SJRWMD a similar public records request.

There is nothing in the SRWMD response that indicates they considered the proposal by Dennis J. Price, P.G., to drill aquifer rehydration wells at overflows of planted pine wetlands.

There is nothing to indicate they looked at any desalination plants other than a few in north Florida.

The actual content of the SRWMD response was two attached spreadsheets, which you can find here: Continue reading →

Tabled: Sheriff’s lease for an ICE detention center –Bradford County Commission 2026-04-16

Forty people spoke against, and not one for, the proposed ICE detention center in Starke, Bradford County, Florida. They came from all across north Florida, from Tallahassee to St. Augustine. As Mary Bauer from Gainesville said, this is really a national issue.

Several of them brought up water and sewage issues such as in the WWALS letter to Bradford County of April 6.

Sheriff Gordon Brown claimed people who came to him were three to one for it.

Outside his bubble, four of five Bradford County Commissioners said that last meeting they asked for all options for the Douglas Building to be considered, that putting only the ICE option on the agenda the previous day, with the lease and operating requirements added only 24 hours before this meeting, was rushed, and they could not vote for it. Continue reading →

Call about developer and datacenter give-away bill GA SB 447 2026-03-17

If datacenters are so great, why did their proponents first gut GA SB 34, which would have prohibited datacenters from passing on electric bills to other ratepayers?

And why now are they trying to pass SB 447, which would distort local permitting processes to favor datacenters and developers in general?

Please ask your Georgia statehouse delegation to vote NO on GA SB 447.

SB 447 will be heard this Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in a subcommittee of the Georgia House Natural Resources and Environment (HNRE) Committee.

It may get voted on there, and then in the full Committee on Thursday.

Call about datacenter and developer give-away, GA SB 447

You can find your Georgia House members here:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

Or type in your ZIP code here:

http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ Continue reading →

Videos: Bradford Road Denied @ Berrien County Commission 2025-11-04

The Berrien County Commission denied the subdividing issue before them: the six lots on Bradford Road, at their November 4, 2025, regular meeting.

However, many irregularities were raised.

Bradford Road Denied @ Berrien County Commission. Many irregularities raised, 2025-11-04

The other lots on Old Valdosta Highway were already decided by the same Commission in 2024, and the minutes for that meeting say at the request of John and Tonia Beville.

At this meeting, John Beville said he and she had not requested that, and never saw any Public Hearing signs posted, even though they lived there at the time. When questioned by the Commission, Zoning Coordinator Teresa Willis said it was done for South Auction, and “Russ” brought the plat to her. She did not say who Russ was.

Della Gladieux pointed out that the three Planning Commission Public Hearings this year all had both plats advertised, for the lots on Old Valdosta Highway, and for the other lots on Bradford Road. She also pointed out other issues in the document she handed the Commissioners: Formal Complaint and Demand for Investigation Re Bradford Road –Della Gladieux 2025-11-04.

Lisa Sumner also spelled out numerous issues.

Below you can see the entire Berrien County Commission meeting of November 4, 2025 in the WWALS videos of each agenda item and speaker, plus a few still pictures, followed by a WWALS video playlist.

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