The developers of the data center proposed for O’Kelley Road have reportedly agreed to accept several conditions from the Hall County Commission (HCC), according to the Lake Lanier Association (LLA). The association said Monday it investigated water usage for the Project Turbo facility with a goal of determining the volume of water it is expected to use and the extent to which that would impact the lake.
The developers agreed to the conditions in order to receive approval of their Special Use and Rezoning applications at the commissioners Thursday meeting.
LLA NEWS RELEASE:
“Those conditions include (1) using a closed-loop cooling system, and (2) using no more than (a) 9,500 GPD (gallons per day) of water, plus (b) the volume of water needed to initially fill the cooling systems (estimated to be 1,500,000 gallons), and (c) whatever volume of water may be needed for fire suppression in the event of a fire. These limits will, of course, be subject to Gainesville Water Resources’ commitment of 225,000 GPD of water supply.
These figures are significantly below the 500,000 GPD the developers initially requested, the 225,000 GPD Gainesville Water Resources has committed to supply, and the 50,000 – 80,000 GPD the developers estimated they would need at their public meeting in October.
LLA believes that because of these limitations on water usage, the data center will have no significant impact on Lake Lanier. As a result of Project Turbo’s agreement to limit their average water usage as described above, LLA recommends that the Commissioners incorporate these limits as a condition for approval of Project Turbo, LLC’s Special Use and Rezoning applications.“