By Bill Rauch
There was some good news last week for those who are concerned about the Colleton County data center steamroller. The political heat being generated down here in the Lowcountry may be beginning to be felt by the pols up there in Columbia.
Seven of the nine representatives representing Colleton County in Columbia – four Republicans and three Democrats – signed on to a resolution that says, “data center developments are not appropriate in the Ace Basin watershed.” Only Senate Minority leader Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) and Rep. Bill Hager (R-Hampton) declined to sign on to the Resolution.
At the same time Sen. Tom Davis (R-Bluffton) introduced a bill tailored exclusively to regulating data centers in South Carolina. Davis’ bill sets standards for where data centers can and cannot be built in the state. It requires data centers to cover all the costs of the electricity they use, and it mandates that best practices relating to water use be required for all South Carolina data centers. The data center resolution and Sen. Davis’ proposed bill were first reported in The South Carolina Daily Gazette.
There was more. Anticipating the cold snap that chilled South Carolina last week, on Sunday, Feb. 1, Gov. Henry McMaster posted on his Facebook page a message warning, “if large numbers crank up the heat too quickly, or run their washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers at the same time, the power companies may not be able to keep up with the sudden demand for power.”
The governor’s post was met with a fusillade of angry comments from Lowcountry residents saying in general and in unison, “If the power companies can’t deliver to us reliable power now, you all are crazy to give Eagle Rock Partners the permit to build a facility here that will use as much electricity as a city with a million plus residents!”
Meanwhile, during the snap Dominion Energy announced 272 of its Ruffin area customers were without power. Ruffin is right around a country corner from the Cooks Hill Road site.
The Colleton County Board of Zoning Appeals had not at this writing announced when it would hold its all-important vote on the data complex’s “special exception” under the county’s recently amended zoning ordinance that, if granted, would give the proposed data center complex the necessary zoning.
Two Colleton County residents have filed a complaint and petition in state court arguing the new “special exception” ordinance violates state law, the county’s comprehensive plan and the county’s zoning code. The petitioners are represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Bill Rauch was the Mayor of Beaufort from 1999 to 2008 and has won multiple awards from the S.C. Press Association for his Island News columns. He can be reached at TheRauchReport@gmail.com.
Impacts of the proposed data center complex
Power bills
Santee Cooper has purchased property for two power substations adjacent to the 850 acre Cooks Hill Road site in the ACE Basin. What is proposed for the 850-acre Cooks Hill Road site is a complex of nine data centers that are expected to require 1,000 megawatts of electricity. A thousand megawatts of electricity is roughly equivalent to the electricity needs of a city of 800,000 homes. Power bills in areas located near significant data center activity have risen by 267% over the past five years, according to a nationwide analysis conducted in September, 2025 by Bloomberg Technologies.
Water
The enormous computers that run data centers create enormous heat which in turn require enormous cooling. To cool the computers, a 50-megawatt data center typically uses 530 million gallons of water each year. Accordingly, The Cooks Hill Road Complex at build-out will require the use of as much as 10.6 billion gallons of water to cool its computers each year. There have been no studies conducted to determine where this water will come from, and how badly its discharge will adversely affect fishing in the Ashepoo River, at the Bear Island WMA, and in the St. Helena Sound.
Runoff
The Cooks Hill Road Complex will create dozens of acres of impermeable surfaces. There have been no studies conducted to determine and how the runoff from this facility will adversely affect fishing in the Ashepoo River, at the Bear Island WMA, and in the St. Helena Sound.
The Canadys Plant
To supplement the grid and to power the Cooks Hill Road Complex, Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy are proposing to build a large new gas-generated electricity generating plant on the banks of the Edisto River at Canadys in the ACE Basin. A recent Harvard University study found that the proposed Canadys Plant will expose two million people to “increased levels of particulate matter” known as PM2.5 that increases the risk for those people of heart attacks, pneumonias, cardiovascular issues, strokes, dementia and cancers. Moreover, there have been no studies conducted to determine how the discharges from this facility will adversely affect fishing in the Edisto River, at the Bear Island WMA, and in the St. Helena Sound.
Air
Because the power grid is unreliable, The Cooks Hill Road Complex will require the regular use of hundreds of large back-up diesel generators. These generators emit a host of harmful pollutants. There have been no studies conducted to determine the adverse affect of these pollutants on the already stressed dove, duck and turkey populations.
Light and noise
For its security, The Cooks Hill Road Complex will require hundreds of floodlights to be on all night long. Moreover, the intermittent use of the banks of diesel generators will create additional light and noise. There have been no studies to determine the adverse effects of this new light and noise upon the local wildlife.
