Developer pitches data-center expansion near West Burlington; addresses water, power and noise concerns

Charlie, a land agent for RM Capital Ventures, told the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors that his company operates a Bitcoin-mining site adjacent to Big River Resources and is exploring expanding the facility from an existing 5 megawatts toward a 25-megawatt build‑out.

He said the current installation consumes about "43,000,000 kilowatt hours a year" and that, at the larger 25 MW scale, the facility would use on the order of "219,000,000 kilowatt hours per year." He characterized the site as colocating with unused electrical capacity and said the company pays for upgrades it needs on distribution equipment.

The presentation focused on three recurring public concerns: whether the plant would cause fires or other safety hazards, whether it would use large amounts of water, and whether its power draw would affect local residents. On fire risk Charlie said the containers and equipment are largely metal and "there's nothing that can burn," and described cooling systems he called "dry coolers" that do not use city or well water under normal conditions.

On water, Charlie gave two operational scenarios. He said the existing 5 MW setup has required "0 gallons" of water in normal operation and that a worst-case wet-chiller approach for a 25 MW end‑user would consume substantially more water — the presenter cited a range tied to cooling method and end‑user choice and stated a 25 MW wet-chiller could use "35 to 43 million gallons a year" in a wet‑cooling scenario. He added the firm prefers closed-loop and dry cooling and would adapt if an end user required water cooling.

Local officials pushed back with questions about transmission upgrades, municipal water availability and the potential tax/economic impacts of such a large capital project. County Engineer Brian Carter asked for technical details on substation upgrades and Charlie said broadband, water, gas and power are all part of feasibility reviews before any large build.

Charlie invited supervisors and members of the public to tour the existing facility and offered to share his full presentation and contact information with the board.

The board did not take an action to approve or deny any project at this meeting; the session served as information‑gathering while county staff pursue regulatory language and conversations with utilities.