Reader says area behind in stopping projects

To the Editor: 

WHAT HAPPENED LAST TUESDAY NIGHT?
Last Tuesday night, July 28, 2026, over 200 concerned citizens of Fort Madison and the surrounding areas showed up at a Planning & Zoning Department meeting. The purpose? To find out about the apparently unstoppable construction of a data center at the top of Burlington Hill (more commonly known as “Prison Hill”).
WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT DATA CENTERS?
Data centers are popping up all over the country and are facing organized resistance. But why? Overall the reports are not good.
1. First, data centers produce disruptive noise 24 hours a day in the 85-100 decibel range. OSHA requires hearing protection for exposures to 80 decibels for more than 4 hours. NBC News in Northern Virginia reported that locals describe the noise “like a helicopter hovering… all day and night.”
2. At full capacity, a medium-sized data center can draw 2.2 gigawatts of power - enough power for more than a million homes (Source: Carlisle, Indiana, Project Ranier). Residents in Carlisle were told there would be a 16.75% utility rate hike from June 2025 to June 2026. (Some residents had already seen a jump of 26.7% by July, 2025.) The math is simple: 16.75 + 26.7 = 43.45% in about 2 years’ time. Some households’ monthly utility bills have already doubled over the last year. (Source: Citizens Action Coalition.)
3. Cooling water is essential to data centers. Data centers use both surface water and underground aquifers to access water needs. In 2025, the Brookings Institute reported that a typical data center uses 300,000 gallons of water each day. Large data centers can use 5 million gallons per day. This is equivalent to the demand of 1,000 to 500,00 households. 80% of the water evaporates. (Source: Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy)
WHAT THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT TOLD US
At the meeting, the Planning & Zoning Department admitted that they knew about the data center under construction more than a year ago. The Department basically took the position that they were “powerless” to do anything about it. Also, disingenuously, in their attachment to the Agenda for the July 28, 2026 meeting, the Planning & Zoning Department asserted that citizens should not be concerned about energy increases or anything else, taking a very positive, but highly uninformed and misleading position. It is obvious that the City supports data centers here in Fort Madison. On energy, the Planning Department passed the buck again, “we do not control energy costs, the utility will decide, not us.”
Interestingly, just a couple of weeks ago, the Lee County Board of Supervisors passed a TEMPORARY moratorium (for one year) on the building of data centers. They deferred the final decision on a permanent ban though, referring it to a Regional Planning Commission. In my opinion, the TEMPORARY moratorium was put in place only as a device to placate citizens. Rumors were flying around about the data center on Prison Hill, and the Board of Supervisors and the City couldn’t withhold their knowledge of the data center project anymore. The TEMPORARY moratorium explicitly EXEMPTED ANY DATA CENTERS ALREADY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. They knew. The citizens of Fort Madison have been played. One wonderful, saving grace happened over the weekend: The Lee County Attorney, Ross Braden, filed a Cease and Desist Order to stop work on the Prison Hill data
center. I bet there was a great public outcry after the Tuesday meeting and, at the urging of the prior mayor of Fort Madison, the County Attorney did his research. He found out that under Iowa’s current case law, the Prison Hill data center project cannot continue while the moratorium is in effect. This is because no actual construction has begun - only dirt work.
Not so wonderful, however, I expect our brave County Attorney will receive a great deal of pushback from the unknown investors of the Prison Hill data center project (BlackRock? the CCP?). In fact, the City has already received a letter purportedly written by Mr. Wolgemuth, the developer (most likely composed by an AI) stating that the data center will be probably be moving to Wisconsin, a more favorable
environment. In other words, he is taking his toys and going home. But, he also stated that he will be keeping his options open here in Fort Madison — just in case.

Since we won’t let him build his data center, he’ll put in something less desirable. In other words, it won’t be new housing or other amenities - only solar, bitcoin mining and trucks parking (what he wanted in the first place). What an ugly view for one of the most iconic and aesthetically beautiful roads into our City. Wow, true colors. I fully expect the Regional Planning Commission to decline to recommend a ban in Lee County. Why? Because, well, look at their history. I don’t believe them about new jobs and economic prosperity coming with data centers. Look at what we got with the nitrogen plant - a whole new community in Wever (a grouping of between 25 and 45 RVs); poorly maintained city streets; an abandoned downtown; oh yeah, I
forgot, we got the dog park and the new marina). Follow the money.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?
Community organized resistance can block or delay projects. DataCenterWatch.org is one of many organizations that can be used as a resource. Check out the organized opposition in The Dalles, Oregon (Mount Hood National Forest slated for private data center development); Zeewolde, Netherlands (where farmland, water and electricity are disappearing for data center development). Even in Ohio (Cleveland, Twinsburg, Ravenna, and Vermilion), things appear to have gotten out of hand. Ohio already has 247 data centers (57 different developers).
Many Ohio citizens are fed up, believing that the decision makers are ignoring community concerns. Ohio House Bill 983 (currently pending) would require that every data center be approved by voters, and every data center would be required to generate its own electricity; no tax breaks for data centers, and the Bill prohibits state regulators from working for developers. Sounds like the citizens of Ohio have had enough of data centers. As more communities are threatened, more
communities are organizing to inform the public of the dangers we are facing. Sounds like Fort Madison needs to get moving!
I am against industrial blight. I am against windowless warehouses on the richest farmland in the world. I am against pollution and more environmental health effects. Ted and I came from a place like that. We don’t want it here. We are still trying to figure out how to eat and grow healthy food. Will some of the most superb farmland in the world be turned over to ugly, loud, thirsty industrial development? Will some of us lose our farms because we can’t afford the utility costs, property taxes, and farm inputs if more unregulated industrial projects come to Fort Madison and Lee County?
Will our homes lose value because of proximity to these data centers, the nitrogen plant, solar farms, ammonia and CO2 pipelines, windmills, and a steel plant (current rumors). We need help. We need to examine, question, and control the roll out of data centers before we can fully embrace the concept. We need actual numbers, not
promises. We need honesty, full transparency and ethical behavior from our elected officials, not dissimilation. They vowed to preserve and protect us, so what are they doing?
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
There are more than 5,300 data centers in operation right now in the United States. (Source: James Madison Institute). That’s about 45% of all data centers in the world at the present time. Do we really need more data centers? Is it important for AI to advise a company as to whether it should raise the price of M&Ms 1 cent or 3 cents?
Do our young people need AI to do their thinking for them? Do we need more AI enhanced surveillance and storage of personal data? More chat rooms, porn sites, more war planning? It’s the Wild, Wild (unregulated) West out there. Let’s stop it — or at least slow it down till we know what we are dealing with. Because, if we don’t
deal with it, we might as well change Fort Madison’s name to “Easy Mark,” Iowa.

Respectfully submitted,
Carelle Stein
Retired attorney, writer, artist, farmer