Butte officials to head west for a Sabey data center road trip to Washington facility
To drive straight through from Butte to Quincy, Washington, requires about seven hours. Maybe more with a dozen people in a 12-person van.
As envisioned, seven members of the Butte Council of Commissioners, two city-county staffers and three members of an Ad Hoc Data Center Impact Committee will hit the road to Quincy on March 26.
The road trippers are on a fact-finding mission tied to a controversial proposal by Sabey Data Centers to build a $1 billion data center in the Montana Connections Business Development Park west of Butte.
“This visit is for our group to see firsthand the operations of the Sabey Data Center,” said J.P. Gallagher, chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow County.
“This Quincy Sabey Colocation Data Center is the same type of facility that is being proposed to be built in the Montana Connections Park,” he said.
Gallagher, who previously visited Quincy, will not make the trip.
The commissioners slated to participate are Michele Shea, Hattie Thatcher, Russell O’Leary, Butch Gerbrandt, Thomas Walker, Josh O’Neill and Eric Mankins.
Jim Kambich, the city-county’s chief of staff, and Jim Keenan, water treatment superintendent, will accompany the group. Kambich, who has a commercial driver’s license, will be behind the wheel.
Ad Hoc committee members making the trip will be Brian Sullivan, Paul Babb and Kelly Sullivan.
The participants preferred traveling on the local government’s dime instead of relying on Sabey to cover transportation and lodging costs to avoid the suggestion of purchased influence.
Gallagher provided a tentative itinerary for the time following travel on March 26.
“The 27th will be organized meetings and data center site visit. I am working to lock down the itinerary for the 27th and should have that sometime early next week,” he said last week.
Gallagher said then that he was working to set up time with members of the Quincy City Council, school district, chamber of commerce and possibly other government officials.
“The group will have time both on the 26th and 27th to explore the community and talk to community members, local businesses or just people in the community,” Gallagher said. “The group will leave early on the 28th to travel back to Butte.”
He said money from the chief executive office’s discretionary fund will pay for the trip.
“From my perspective, it is an important trip for this group to be able to see the facility and ask hard questions regarding the data center and what the true impact is to a community,” Gallagher said.
Scores of communities across the U.S. are embroiled in debates about the pros and cons of data centers.
The MIT Technology Review described data centers as “a marvel of our age” and “nothing short of a technological wonder.”
Yet the article added, “People hate them.”
The reasons include, but are not limited to, heavy consumption of power and water, noise pollution and the post-construction employment of comparatively few people.
Dave Sabey, chairman and president of Sabey Corp., participated in a Feb. 27 roundtable at Montana Tech with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“We’re one of the largest private data center companies in the country,” Sabey told Burgum. “We’re not very well liked in a lot of areas for a number of reasons.”
Gallagher has been bullish on the Sabey project since last April. That’s when commissioners agreed to sell 606 acres to an LLC of Sabey Data Centers the company named Horizons Montana. Sabey Corp. is based in Seattle and already operates data centers in the U.S.
Commissioners have agreed to extensions on Sabey’s deadline for closing on the land deal and they OK’d in early February a six-month extension to Aug. 11 so the company can complete title work and settle energy issues with NorthWestern Energy.
Gallagher and others have said the project will bring jobs, especially during construction, investments and tax dollars and be the sort of economic driver Butte hasn’t seen in decades.
Yet citizens and watchdog groups are wary of data centers in Butte and elsewhere, saying they consume massive amounts of water and power and could trigger higher power bills for residents, among other things.
The Ad Hoc Committee’s report did not lessen criticisms from those who said the committee was stacked with data center proponents.
Erik Nylund is a member of the Butte Watchdogs for Social and Environmental Justice.
“When we see the information presented to us as ‘fact,’ relying upon things like vague assurances from the developer as the source, there’s nothing neutral or satisfying about the results of a process that allows a very few minutes of public comment at each meeting,” Nylund said recently.
Evan Barrett, another member of the Butte Watchdogs, said Sunday that he supports the road trip and hopes participants will keep their eyes and ears open. He added that Sabey ought to drive east.
“Sabey ought to come to Butte, to have a public meeting in front of the council and answer all their questions, but also have a public meeting where Sabey can, in full transparency, answer the hard questions of citizens of Butte,” Barrett said.
The Ad Hoc Committee presented its report to commissioners on Feb. 18. It suggested the data center could yield 200 jobs, up to $4.5 million in annual local tax revenue, wouldn’t use too much water and that there are safeguards in Montana to protect existing NorthWestern Energy customers from big rate hikes.
The report acknowledged drawbacks, including a potential strain on rental markets if outside construction labor is brought in, but says other factors could soften that.
The committee acknowledged also that more information is needed from Sabey.
Gallagher said he hopes the road trip to Quincy will be fruitful.
“From my perspective, it is an important trip for this group to be able to see the facility and ask specific questions regarding the data center and what the true impact is to a community,” he said.
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