Urbana residents fight proposed data center near Cedar Bog

 

Data center opponents packed the Urbana City Council meeting on March 3/Jim McCormac

Urbana residents fight proposed data center near Cedar Bog

Columbus Dispatch
March 15, 2026

NATURE
Jim McCormac

“Technology can help us save the planet. But more than anything, we must learn to value nature.”

The above quote was a headline from a 2018 article published by the World Economic Forum. Its first sentence is not aging well. The second sentence remains true.

Growth in AI and other elements of the digital age is exploding, and so is the infrastructure to support it. Data centers are an overt manifestation of the industry, and an increasingly unpopular one.

Data centers, especially so-called hyperscale centers, are technological monsters. Hyperscale centers typically exceed 10,000 square feet and contain over 5,000 servers. Energy and water consumption can be extreme. Even a midsized center can use 300,000 gallons of water daily. That’s the equivalent of about 1,000 households.

Energy use can soar into the stratosphere. Giant hyperscale centers might require up to 250 megawatts daily. That’s roughly the equivalent of the residential energy use of Cincinnati.

Perhaps 5,000 data centers are now in operation in the U.S., and about 200 are online in Ohio.

Most Ohioans probably only became aware of data centers in the last year or two, and many citizens may still be in the dark about these massive computing operations. This appears to be by design. Tech giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and others have operated under a cloak of secrecy regarding their development.

As people have increasingly become aware of data centers and their prodigious energy and water use (and other negative issues), rebellions are fomenting. A local data center uprising involves a proposal to place a hyperscale center on the south side of Urbana, 1.5 miles north of the legendary Cedar Bog, which is perhaps Ohio’s most iconic natural area.

By the time most people learned about the proposed center, the land had already been purchased, and construction plans were well underway. The billion-dollar hyperscale center, as planned, encompasses about 460,000 square feet.

As word spread through the Urbana community and surrounding areas, residents revolted. Scores of people made their grievances known to Urbana City Council. To their credit, council scheduled a March 3 meeting at which citizens could air their concerns.

To accommodate the anticipated turnout, arrangements were made to use the Champaign County Community Center and its 200-seat auditorium. I attended, in part to offer expert testimony about Cedar Bog and its ecology.

The capacious meeting room was inadequate. An estimated 300-400 people came, the room was packed and the overflow extended into adjacent rooms and corridors.

Over 30 people, ages 13 to 91, delivered five-minute statements, and no one was for the data center. The majority also mentioned Cedar Bog, what it meant to them and its importance to Urbana.

A potentially major issue for the bog involves disruption to its hydrology. Cedar Bog is fed by the underlying aquifer, which provides a stable source of cool water. Cedar Bog depends upon clean groundwater to fuel its peaty wetlands. The hyperscale center would perch atop this aquifer, and upstream from the bog.

Over 520 species of native plants occur within the bog, which is over 25% of ALL the plant species in Ohio. Further, the site harbors three endangered plant species, nine threatened species and 14 potentially threatened or watch-list species.

Some are the rarest of the rare, such as prairie valerian, which was originally discovered in Cedar Bog in 1838. There is only one other small population in Ohio.

The most famous plant in the bog is undoubtedly the showy lady’s slipper, North America’s largest orchid. Likely tens of thousands of visitors have visited the bog in June to clap eyes on the giant pink and white flowers of this threatened plant.

Especially notable to botanists are the carnivorous bladderworts. These plants trap tiny invertebrates in sac-like traps attached to their roots. One species is the endangered horned bladderwort. The other species is, well, we don’t know for sure. It may turn out to be a highly localized “new” species not yet described to science.

Cedar Bog also harbors scores of breeding birds, endangered massasauga rattlesnakes and elfin skimmer dragonflies, spotted turtles, five-lined skinks, Milbert’s tortoiseshell butterflies and much more.

Protection of the underlying aquifer is essential to protect Cedar Bog’s fragile habitats. While the developer’s representatives, from CyrusOne and Thor Equities, claim that this data center would use “closed-loop” cooling, thus greatly reducing water usage, their claims were met with great distrust by those at the meeting.

The reps also expressed willingness to meet with all who wished to discuss concerns. Unfortunately, they left the meeting before all of those with concerns went to the lectern to express their concerns.

In an unexpected bit of good news from the meeting, Urbana City Council proposed a one-year moratorium on building the hyperscale center. Seven of the eight council members were present, and the moratorium proposal passed by a vote of 6 to1. The lone dissenter was Audra Bean, wife of Urbana Mayor Bill Bean. He is a major advocate for the data center.

I cannot think of a worse location for an energy-sucking hyperscale data center than the proposed Urbana site. Not only because of Cedar Bog, but also due to the close proximity of a retirement village, an elementary school and many businesses and residences.

Hopefully elected officials will stand with the Urbana residents who elected them and quash plans for this hyperscale data center.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

The threatened showy lady's-slipper, an icon of Cedar Bog/Jim McCormac