Time Range For Action Alert:
Dec 13 2025 to Dec 20 2025
Thomas & Hutton and Eagle Rock Partners are requesting a “special exception” from the Colleton County Board of Zoning Appeals (ZBA) to allow a data center on 850 acres of rural timberland.
The property is located on Cooks Hill Road, south of Walterboro in the ACE Basin. The site plan shows nine large industrial buildings on the property surrounded by wetlands. There are over 200 acres of wetlands on the property. The site plan suggests the complex would require the filling of 1.5 acres of wetlands.
The asks
1. Attend the Board of Zoning Appeals Public Hearing on December 18, 5 p.m., at the Old Jail Buillding, 109 Benson Street, Walterboro. Sign up to speak, share your concerns about the proposed data center, and encourage the Board of Zoning Appeals to DENY this request for a special exception.
2. Can't make the hearing? Email the Board of Zoning Appeals at planning [at] colletoncounty.org. Share your concerns about their action that could threaten the Ace Basin and your water, and impact your energy bills.
3. Amplify this message. Share this alert with your friends and networks.
Talking points
Our concerns
- Data centers use massive amounts of energy. One large data center can use 100 MW of power, which is roughly equivalent to the annual energy used by nearly 80,000 homes.
- The computer systems inside a data center need to be cooled to function properly, usually using evaporative cooling. This requires a significant amount of clean, potable water. A large 50 MW data center can use more than 530 million gallons of water a year.
- While proponents suggest that large numbers of jobs would be created, it is very unlikely that this would happen. Data centers do NOT require large numbers of personnel, and those that they do require are often not local, but specialists brought in from elsewhere.
Zoning considerations
The property is currently zoned as a Rural Development Area that allows low intensity agricultural and residential uses. The proposed use is in no way compatible with the zoning designation. Further, it very likely would lead to additional non-compatible iintrusions.
Unanswered questions
- Where will the massive amounts of electricity come from, and who will pay to develop capacity to deliver it? Will cost be allocated to residential and small business ratepayers in the service area?
- How much water will be used, and where will it come from? What impact will it have on ground and surface water supplies? Who will pay to develop infrastructure to deliver it? What is the wastewater treatment plan?
- What will be done to mitigate noise pollution created by onsite generators and fans, a serious problem for residents near data centers?
More information
The Walterboro proposal
The property is part of a larger 2,600-acre tract owned by Weyerhaeuser, meaning there would be potential for expansion of the data center complex in the future. The property is in close proximity to multiple properties permanently protected by a conservation easement, including: Bonnie Doone, Ravenwood Plantation, Remley Point, Prospect Hill Farm, and Horseshoe Tract.
A large 50 MW data center can use more than 530 million gallons of water a year, enough to fill 804 Olympic-size swimming pools. In comparison, the entire City of Walterboro water system serves 11,000 people and uses approximately 657 million gallons of water a year.
Data center cooling systems may also generate significant quantities of wastewater that can strain local wastewater infrastructure and generate downstream pollution.
Data centers that draw their primary power from the grid often also install dozens or even hundreds of large backup generators to ensure their servers are always running. These diesel and/or gas fired generators emit a host of harmful pollutants—especially during power outages when they all operate at once.
Colleton County recently passed an ordinance which explicitly allows approved data centers to have onsite gas generation. This creates pollution on the site and can be noisy.
Data center complexes require large warehouse-style buildings and large areas of pavement.This can push more pollution from stormwater runoff into local waterways, disrupting the local hydrology and degrading water quality.
When data centers are located near residential areas, they can change the landscape of neighborhoods, industrialize rural communities, and alter historic and scenic viewsheds.
Data centers can disrupt nearby residents and wildlife because they generate noise pollutionfrom the constant humming of fans used to cool the servers.
According to the Public Notice, the property is currently zoned as a Rural Development area. Colleton County zoning code describes this zoning district as “very rural in nature” and states:“It allows for agricultural uses, rural residential development, and low intensity supporting uses.” An 850-acre data center complex is by no means “very rural in nature” or a “low intensity” land use.
The bigger picture across the Southeast and Canadys
Across the Southeast, utilities are using projected data center power demand to jjustify building new fossil fuel power plants that emit harmful air pollutants, including fine particulate matter. Santee Cooper and Dominion SC are proposing to build a massive new gas plant on the banks of the Edisto River in Canadys.Santee Cooper has stated that approximately 70% of its anticipated load growth is coming from data centers.
A recent study completed by data scientists at Harvard University predicts the proposed Canadys plant would expose over two million people to increased levels of fine particulate matter, which can increase the risk of hospitalizations due to heart attack, pneumonia, cardiovascular issues, or, in some cases, stroke or cancer. It’s anticipated this would create $28 million in increased healthcare costs.
These utilities also want to build a new major 70+ mile gas pipeline known as the “Elba Bridge Pipeline” from Georgia to Canadys. The pipeline would serve the Canadys plant, but it would also provide more gas capacity for additional power plants and industrial uses.
If the Canadys power plant and Elba Bridge Pipeline are allowed to move forward, it would likely lead to more proposals for new data centers, new power plants, and other new industrial uses in the ACE Basin and along the entire pipeline route.
