Virtually everyone agrees that cyber industries and the advancement of artificial intelligence will dominate the economy of the future, but some fear that embracing this “virtual” economy will cause real world issues.
Columbia County leaders say that welcoming cyber-related industries could one day provide such a boon to the county that people may no longer have to pay property taxes. In fact, in December 2024, the Columbia County Development Authority purchased the 612 acre White Oak Park for $2.9 million and later rezoned the land to accommodate future cyber growth.
However, not everyone is convinced that cyber industries are the wave of the future that the county should be surfing.
Specifically, the computer systems that support AI and cyber commerce need an incredible amount of water to support their daily functions, and some communities have discovered after-the-fact that their underground watershed cannot support such activity.
Local political activist Lee Muns has cited many articles questioning the wisdom of wholesale embracing the new technology and columnist Karin Parham, has published insights from her investigation that considered both the use of county water to operate the cloud and the power requirements needed if all 29 planned data center possibilities become a reality.
MORE: Malinda Cobb named new Richmond County School System superintendent
A recent article in The New York Times about the water woes in Newton County, Ga. because of a Meta data center, attracted plenty of eyeballs locally, causing many locally to question if cyber might actually be a water-stealing villain in disguise.
Residents in Newton County certainly have reason to complain. According to the New York Times, those living near the Meta site who rely on well water have seen their taps dry up, swimming pools filled with silt and everyday activities such as bathing and washing clothes being curtailed as Meta gobbles up the groundwater.
Columbia County Administrator Scott Johnson says that the critics are mixing apples and oranges into their evidence pile and that the county has enough water as well as electricity to allow for cyber growth without causing disruptions. Johnson points to the Savannah River and Clark’s Hill Lake as being the major difference between the two counties.
Data is unavailable on how many people in Covington, which is where “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “In the Heat of the Night” were filmed, rely on well water, but according to the Newton County Water and Sewer Authority, 110,000 people out of the population of 112,000 rely on county water which is drawn directly from the Alcovy River, a tributary of the Ocmulgee River, which is itself a tributary of the Altamaha River.
Even though Newton County has grown markedly over the past two decades, per the U.S. Census, the county is still largely reliant on agriculture, from beef cattle grazing to vineyards and Christmas tree farms. According to the county’s official website, there are just under 175,000 acres of “vast, fertile, Piedmont soil with a red clay base.”
MORE: Augusta Commission hikes streetlight, garbage fees, pauses SPLOST 9
These agricultural exploits end up competing with Meta and the human population for an ever dwindling supply of water coming off the Alcovy River, which, in turn, has caused many tributaries that feed the ground watershed to dry up.
Mike Hopkins, executive director of the Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority, has been cited in several news reports as admitting that the Meta facility uses upward of 10% of the county’s available water, leading to what many are calling a crisis.
Meanwhile, according to Johnson, at least two-thirds of Columbia County residents, or about 50,000 households are on the county water system and, unlike Newton County, Columbia County’s water comes from the mighty Savannah River, one of the three largest waterways in the state, along with the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers,
“We’re permitted to draw between the lake and the river over 45 million gallons a day, and currently we are not even at 40, I think we are at 37 (million gallons), so we have eight to nine million gallons a day of excess capacity right this second,” Johnson said.
In fact, according to Johnson, the hydroelectricity from the J. Strom Thurmond Dam and investments by Georgia Power have created one of the most stable electricity grids in the state, and that along with other factors makes Columbia County a prime area for cyber growth.
MORE: Tip Top Taps of downtown, once of Evans, closes
“We already have cyber everywhere, we are in close proximity to Fort Gordon, which is the cyber center of the world, we’ve got Georgia Power that has made significant investments in power here and at Plant Vogtle, it’s like the stars have aligned,” Johnson said.
Both sides do agree that it is too early to make any predictions, from the possible elimination of property taxes to potential water scarcity, as no company has stepped up to utilize the White Oak Park property and before doing so would have to present a comprehensive plan to Columbia County leaders and the public at large.
Forbes Magazine estimates that AI’s projected water usage could hit 6.6 billion million gallons by 2027 and companies such as Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions are scrambling to find a solution beyond simply allowing the spent water to evaporate into the atmosphere.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and weekly columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
