They Want To Put a Data Center Above the Aquifer. What Could Go Wrong?
A Small Ohio Community Is Fighting To Protect The Water Beneath Its Feet
Laura McNamara-Smith has lived in Ashville, Ohio, for 50 years.
Three generations of her family call the village home along with more than 4,800 other residents. They all drink water drawn from the Teays Valley Aquifer, an ancient underground formation that flows beneath Pickaway County, less than 50 feet below the surface.
Now a global corporation wants to build an 800-megawatt industrial natural gas energy facility directly above the area’s aquifer—its sole source of drinking water. The facility would take up about 110 acres and provide power to the data center on the same site.
Ashville is a quiet place just 20 miles south of Columbus with a strong community bond, and the proposed EdgeConneX data center threatens to disrupt that tranquility.
Laura recently wrote to me expressing her overwhelm and concerns about the pace and scope of the project.
She said her goal in speaking out was simple: to ensure transparency, accountability, and a clear understanding of what is being proposed and how it may affect her community.
Laura wrote:
I know you understand what it feels like to be a regular person who knows something is wrong and cannot get anyone to listen. That is exactly where we are.
I am not asking you to solve this for us. I am asking you to shine a light on it. Our community is fighting as hard as we can. But we need someone with your voice to help people understand what is at stake, not just for Ashville, but for every community sitting above a vulnerable aquifer that a corporation decides it wants to use.
Laura, I hear you.
And I want you to know, what you are describing is not unusual. It is not a local quirk. It’s a pattern. Even before the data center boom, big corporations used a similar playbook for any project with questionable environmental values.
It looks something like this: identify a resource, move fast, work quietly through local channels, and by the time residents understand what’s happening, the paperwork is already done.
You’re not alone in these struggles. Ohio ranks 5th in the nation for data centers with about 200 sites, according to the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.
Just 6 hours away in Joliet, Illinois, plans are moving forward to build the largest data center in the state. It also sits on top of an underground aquifer that has been steadily dwindling for the last 150 years.
In fact, reports say the aquifer that supplies Joliet’s drinking water is likely going to run too dry by 2030—a problem more communities face as the climate changes and groundwater declines.
While project supporters welcome advances in data center technology, many Joliet residents have expressed alarm over the potential environmental impact.
Another hastily built supercomputer in South Memphis sits on top of an aquifer with some of the best drinking water in the world. We wrote about it here:
So how do we balance economic and environmental priorities?
I tend to be a fan of the precautionary principle, which is a strategy used to prevent harm to the public or the environment when scientific knowledge is incomplete. It suggests taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty, rather than waiting for conclusive evidence of harm.
Corporations tend to take the opposite approach. Promise local government an influx of jobs and/or tax revenue and get a deal done with as little environmental assessment as possible.
Back To The Water in Ashville
The village’s own Consumer Confidence Report, the annual water quality document that public water systems are required to publish under federal law, tells you something important before you even look at what EdgeConneX is proposing.
The Ohio EPA has rated the Teays Valley Aquifer as having “high susceptibility to contamination” in 2023. The aquifer is separated from whatever happens above ground by a thin layer of clay. Ashville’s 2023 report identifies an existing natural gas line as contamination source number five within the one-year capture zone of the village’s wells, and that’s before any new industrial construction begins.
In February 2026, the Ohio EPA issued a Notice of Violation to Ashville’s water system following a routine inspection, citing a leaking 100,000-gallon storage tank, a well that has been offline since August 2024 with no backup in place, and multiple operational deficiencies. The village’s water infrastructure, in other words, is already under strain.
Now consider what an 800-megawatt natural gas power plant requires on top of that. I’m spit balling here but probably some transmission-scale pipelines, fuel storage, chemical treatment systems, and continuous industrial operations running 24 hours a day, every day.
The routing of the gas pipeline that would serve the facility has not been publicly disclosed. No one in the community has been shown a map of whether it crosses the one-year capture zone of their wells.
Resolution 06-2026, the development agreement the village council voted on, is 8 pages long. It contains zero binding groundwater protections, zero monitoring requirements, and zero enforceable standards for the aquifer.
There Is a Public Meeting. Show Up.
On Wednesday, April 1, PowerConneX is hosting its first public information meeting about the Ashville Energy Center at the Teays Valley High School Cafeteria from 5 to 7 p.m. It will be an open house format.
A second public information meeting will be held at a later date. PowerConneX has stated it anticipates filing its application with the Ohio Power Siting Board within 90 days of that second meeting.
Here is what I want you to do at that meeting: Ask the questions that haven’t been answered yet.
Ask where the gas pipeline goes.
Ask whether it crosses the one-year capture zone of your wells.
Ask what binding protections for the aquifer will be written into any permit.
Ask why those protections weren’t in Resolution 06-2026.
Ask them to show you the map.
You can also reach the project team ahead of the meeting at (703) 935-2452 Ext. 10141 or pcxenergyashville@edgeconnex.com.
The Ohio Power Siting Board is the agency that will ultimately decide whether this facility gets built. The OPSB accepts written public comments at any time. You do not have to wait for a hearing. Case No. 26-196-EL-BGN.
Send comments to: Ohio Power Siting Board, 180 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215. Email: contactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov. Phone: 1-866-270-6772.
Every individual comment matters. Volume matters. Specificity matters. Don’t just say you’re worried. Cite the EPA’s rating, cite the absence of independent hydrogeological studies, and ask the Board what standards will protect the aquifer. Make them answer on the record.
If you want to do more: seek out independent technical expertise. Environmental law clinics, organizations like Earthjustice or the Ohio Environmental Law Center, and university hydrogeology departments are places to start. The company will have its own experts. You need yours.
And tell your story. To your local paper. To your state legislators. To your neighbors. The aquifer is in the floor of your school. It is 50 feet below the ground where your families have lived for generations. That is worth fighting for.
Congress Is Starting to Pay Attention
Ashville is not alone, and the pattern Laura is describing is now registering at the federal level.
Last week Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation that would place an immediate federal pause on new AI data center construction until strong national safeguards are in place.
“Data center construction inflate electric bills in communities across the country,” Ocasio-Cortez said in announcing the bill. “Congress has a moral obligation to stand with the American people and stop the expansion of these data centers until we have a framework to adequately address the existential harm AI poses to our society.”
Sanders was equally direct.
“We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity,” he said. “We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers.”
The legislation would require that before development resumes, AI must be demonstrated to be safe and effective, that its economic gains benefit workers and not just tech investors, and that data centers do not increase utility prices, harm communities, or damage the environment.
The bill is part of a broader national reckoning. More than 100 local communities around the country have already enacted moratoriums on data centers, and 12 states are currently advancing statewide moratorium proposals.
In 2023, more than 1,000 industry leaders and scientists called for AI labs to pause development for at least six months. Since then, prominent voices inside the industry itself, including the heads of Google DeepMind and Anthropic, have said they would support slowing AI development if other countries and companies did the same.
What’s happening in Ashville isn’t a local anomaly. It’s one instance of a national problem that Congress is only now beginning to confront.
Upcoming Opportunities To Show Up & Use Your Voice
The first public information meeting will be held:
Wednesday, April 1, 5–7 p.m.
Teays Valley High School Cafeteria, 3887 State Route 752, Ashville, OH 43103
Written comments to the Ohio Power Siting Board may be submitted at any time. OPSB Case No. 26-196-EL-BGN. Contact: contactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov or 1-866-270-6772.
The final village council vote is on Monday, April 6th. I’m always telling people to get to local meetings and show your elected officials that you care about these issues.
See our tips for attending a town hall meeting here.
What’s happening in your community? Are you concerned about data centers? Do you support putting a pause on new facilities?
“They paved paradise & put up a parking lot” was the 1st thing that popped in my head when I read your latest headline, Erin. Wishing you as much happiness as we can all find amidst the craziness.
When I express concern about data centers to people here in CA central valley they say What's that?? If I try to explain they usually say I love ai it makes searching on my phone so much easier. Some use Chat GBT. It does all the work for them. That's the average mindset! I'm bookmarking this for when it happens here.
Erin Brockovitch is a Hero! Thank you!