Residents press county on water, noise and oversight as data center proposal moves through review

A proposed data center at the Planar/Bonner Mill site drew detailed technical briefings and sharp community questions at the Bonner Milltown Community Council’s May 11 meeting.

Robert Morris, Lance Energy chair at Montana Tech, told the council data centers can be configured with widely varying water and energy footprints depending on cooling choices. Morris outlined industry metrics — power‑use effectiveness (PUE) and water‑use effectiveness (WUE) — and said modern adiabatic and dry cooling systems can drastically lower daily water consumption compared with traditional evaporative cooling. "If it's a dry cooling system, it doesn't use any external water during cooling," Morris said, explaining tradeoffs between energy consumption and water use.

Why it matters: neighbors want concrete limits and independent verification. Jenny Dixon, the county case planner on the application, said the county certified the application complete and will circulate it for agency comment, publish public notices and prepare a staff report focused on impacts to adjacent residential areas including traffic, lighting, noise and utility impacts. She said the county's current review will center on neighborhood effects rather than a detailed audit of every company goal: "Our review is going to be focused pretty specifically on the impacts of industrial use on adjacent residential use," Dixon said.

On water rights and volumes, Benjamin Thomas of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) said the site already includes industrial water rights that together permit roughly 1,200 acre‑feet of consumed water per year — a number he converted to approximately 400 million gallons annually for the whole property — and DNRC had not yet received an application from the data center operator. Thomas said, given the existing rights, the project might not need a new DNRC application if it used rights already tied to the property.

That DNRC figure, attendees noted, covers the entire parcel. Morris and county staff explained the applicant’s present materials describe a much lower operational water consumption for the specific building footprint now proposed (the applicant described an annual figure on the order of thousands of gallons), a difference county staff said they will reconcile during review. "If they're claiming 2,000 gallons a year, that's consistent with a dry chiller design and limited staffing," Morris said; county staff said they will seek clarifying site plans and water‑use calculations and publish those materials on the Missoula County engagement page when available.

Electricity and rates were another source of debate. Morris argued that adding industrial load can create regional scale that lowers per‑unit prices and that data centers often contract for power off the utility rate base, while others warned that contracts and tariff design can shift risks to ratepayers. Ben Caden of the Montana Environmental Information Center said investor‑facing studies commissioned by large operators may not be a neutral basis for local cost projections and urged scrutiny of Northwestern Energy’s proposed large‑load tariff and any letters of intent the utility has signed to serve megawatts of new demand.

Residents focused on several potential community impacts. On noise, Morris and county staff identified external chillers as the likeliest 24/7 sound source and noted county limits that prevent issuing a zoning compliance permit if equipment noise exceeds 50 dBA at a residential property line at night or 55 dBA during the day. On cooling tower wastewater, staff said condensate and tower flush water would be handled in a health‑department‑approved system, possibly captured and trucked off site or routed to the site's approved drain field; the method will be reviewed by public health and DEQ as required.

Community members repeatedly called for more independent, ongoing monitoring rather than relying solely on company self‑reporting. "Transparent, independent monitoring should be allowed — let's even say required — so that we can learn from this new technology and its implementation," one resident said, noting the project’s promises and past industry failures. County staff responded that a zoning compliance permit and any conditions attached to a special exception would allow the county to verify noise, lighting and other standards at the time of final compliance, and that the county can investigate and measure if complaints arise later.

Procedural context: Jenny Dixon said the county expects to take the project to a special‑exception hearing on impacts to adjacent residential uses, currently scheduled for a July hearing cycle; any proposal to expand beyond the site’s existing 29 megawatt service would require additional transmission capacity and separate review. Dixon said the county will post updated application materials and site plans to Missoula County Voice when they are available.

What’s next: the county review and agency comment period will continue; the council set a three‑minute public comment format for the meeting’s public‑comment segment and encouraged residents to submit questions through the county engagement page. The application remains under agency review and has not yet been approved or denied.