By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

A group of citizens who have been speaking for months against a rumored proposal to place a data center in Lee County – and a natural gas mining operation to power it – will push the issue again before the county board of commissioners on Monday.

The board is scheduled to hear from the Southern Environmental Law Center about the possible impacts of an unconfirmed plan by Deep River Data to place a data center near the Lee-Chatham county line south of U.S. 421 near Cumnock. The commissioners voted in February to hear the presentation, but the days leading up to Monday’s meeting have seen numerous social media posts urging those who have come out in opposition to appear before the board again.

In addition, a mailer from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League went out to area residents in early March asking them to attend the meeting and “ask for a temporary moratorium on data centers to give the county time to plan for development that threatens our air and water.”

The project – still rumored at this point – would be located at the site of Butler Well Number 3, an exploratory natural gas test well drilled in 1998 northwest of Sanford and less than one-tenth of a mile from Deep River near Patterson Creek. The well was among the last such wells drilled in the state and has been inactive since then. It is also located within four miles of a 6-inch natural gas distribution line that feeds large volume users at Central Carolina Enterprise Park.

In 2011, the North Carolina Geological Survey reported that Butler Well No. 3 had been drilled to a depth of just over half a mile – 2,655 feet – into the Cumnock Formation of the Deep River Basin, an 800-foot thick deposit of black shale and coal that formed millions of years ago.

Data centers have made headlines in recent years as their use – and frequent detrimental environmental impacts – in artificial intelligence and crypto mining operations have become more mainstream. But data centers go far beyond those uses – they process and store any digital information utilized in text messaging, online banking transactions, streaming services and more, and have been doing so for decades.

The topic of fracking – which also generated lots of headlines during a debate over the issue in the 2010s – spilled back into the public on Nov. 1, when Inside Climate News published a report indicating Alamance County-based company Deep River Data wanted to access natural gas from Butler No. 3. The story identified Deep River Data as having “connections with the cryptocurrency industry” and detailed connections its officers have both in business and government.

Since then, a long line of Lee County residents has spoken before the Board of Commissioners and the Sanford City Council asking for a moratorium against data centers and fracking. Chatham County enacted such a moratorium in February.

The Inside Climate News piece quotes a source saying Deep River Data plans to use “conventional drilling, rather than fracking,” but BREDL’s mailer pushes back against that idea by noting “it is unlikely this well can produce any usable amount of gas without … fracking.”

The Sanford Area Growth Alliance, the public private partnership that leads Lee County’s economic development efforts, issued a statement on Wednesday indicating that the organization planned to make an appearance at Monday’s meeting as well and explaining that the rumored proposal is not something SAGA is involved in.

“Recent conversations on social media about a ‘fracking AI data center’ in Lee County have included the misconception that SAGA is involved in this project. We want to be clear: SAGA stands firmly against fracking in Lee County to power an AI data center,” the statement read. “This project is not affiliated with or supported by SAGA. Modern, sustainable data centers do not use fracking. They don’t drill for natural gas, don’t extract fossil fuels, and don’t use horizontal drilling techniques. They use electrical power from the grid and backup diesel generators – the same type hospitals, schools, and fire stations rely on.”

SAGA’s position is not against data centers themselves, though. The statement goes on to say that Lee County “is proactively developing standards to ensure if a project comes to Lee County, it meets our community’s expectations for environmental protection and economic benefit” and that “a responsible data center operator could provide significant benefits: dramatic tax base expansion, hundreds of construction jobs, and well-paid permanent career opportunities close to home. Other North Carolina communities, like Catawba County, have seen millions in annual tax revenue funding schools, scholarships, and infrastructure improvements as a result of their embrace of data centers.

As of December, the county’s position – via Commission Chairman Kirk Smith – was that neither state nor local government had received any official request for permits that would allow such an operation. There’s been no information to indicate that any of that has changed since, although Smith did at the time throw cold water on the idea of any kind of moratorium in a statement to The Rant, calling it “on its face dictatorial and rooted in an authoritarian regime most associated with Marxists.” He later referred specifically to the Chinese Communist Party and alleged that it “(funds) environmental groups opposing ‘data centers.’”

Additional reporting by Richard Sullins.