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# Spokane-area data center proposals, explained
- URL: https://www.rangemedia.co/spokane-area-data-center-proposals-explained/
- Published: 2026-09-25T21:57:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T21:57:29.000Z
- Description: The data center saga in Spokane County has grown into one of the biggest local stories over the last several months as developers court local officials. Here’s what you need to know.
- Author: Aaron Hedge
- Tags: Environment

The debate over data centers in Spokane County [has heated up](https://www.rangemedia.co/spokane-county-residents-mobilize-as-data-centers-eye-region/) like an overloaded digital server rack buzzing — not with electricity, but with information and angst.

Activists have been frantically gathering and analyzing that information, but it’s a lot for the average person to handle at one time. Storylines around several data center proposals are developing on social media seemingly at the same rate as the very technology that uses the data centers, which process and store every command we send into the internet. During the last three decades, eight data centers appeared in the Spokane area: small facilities that rent server space to businesses to store their information.

But that small footprint might soon change. As officials in Spokane County and its municipalities are trying to figure out how they might regulate the energy-intensive facilities, some leaders are trying to attract data center developers here — and the proposals are orders of magnitude larger than the existing data centers. The largest existing facility in the county is a TierPoint data center in Liberty Lake that occupies 32,000 square feet, whereas the largest proposed new facility could be millions of square feet and consume as much energy as all of Spokane County. 

New records about the proposals are being revealed almost every day. City and county planning officials are drafting zoning regulations that could shape data center development in the region for the next decade. The political lines are shifting, as county commissioners consider their legacies during an election year. It’s a fast-moving story that’s unlikely to end even when local bans on data center approvals expire before the end of the year. 

So we wanted to create a digest of all the most important dynamics you need to understand about data centers, the developers who are looking to site their next projects in Spokane County, the politicians working with those companies and the activists fighting them. 

### The pauses

Both the City of Spokane and Spokane County have followed the lead of governments across the country by implementing pauses — [one year](https://my.spokanecity.org/news/releases/2026/06/23/spokane-city-council-passes-one-year-moratorium-on-data-centers/?ref=rangemedia.co) for the city and [four months](https://www.rangemedia.co/spokane-county-four-month-moratorium-data-center/) for the county — on approvals for new data center permits. The purpose is to give the governments breathing room to develop responsible rules for new data centers in each jurisdiction.

The city’s moratorium took effect June 22 and will expire June; the county’s “pause” — which does the same legal task as a moratorium — on August 18.

The pause is a particularly touchy topic at the county level. Initially, commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan in July proposed a nine-month moratorium but were overruled by the conservative majority, which wanted instead to enshrine a slate of hastily compiled zoning restrictions without any weigh-in from constituents. Commissioners Al French, Josh Kerns and Mary Brooks were initially against any moratorium. 

Those conversations took place on July 21, just before the commission took a few weeks off from meetings. What they came back to on August 11 was a cacophony of activist voices demanding transparency from French about his [conversations](https://www.rangemedia.co/commissioner-al-french-on-data-centers-spokane-county-is-not-closed-for-business/) with data center developers and a proposal from county staff to halt data center approvals until December 15\. 

That pause would give planning officials time to come up with a zoning schedule for data centers and other energy-intensive developments.

French noted that it was his job as a commissioner to encourage economic development and asserted a data center would provide sustainable jobs to the area, a common industry talking point that is [probably exaggerated](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-evidence-on-data-center-employment-effects/?ref=rangemedia.co), and boost local tax revenues. Still, he supported the pause. Jordan and Waldref each called for a longer pause, and Waldref noted that it can be extended.

Kerns, who initially said the commission should move at the “speed of business” rather than government, told RANGE in a recent interview that he will vote to extend the pause if he is not satisfied with the zoning proposal by December 15\. Kerns is the only conservative on the commission who will likely run for reelection.

### How many and where?

As news organizations in Spokane have been reporting for months, the current local conversation around data centers was initiated by a [legislative proposal](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/feb/09/washington-lawmakers-consider-tax-break-for-two-da/?ref=rangemedia.co) by Representative Timm Ormsby (D-Spokane) to exempt new data centers in Spokane County from property taxes. It was designed to bring the county in line with King, Pierce and Snohomish counties and other counties inhabited by fewer than 800,000 people where large data centers were already exempted.

French effusively supported that proposal in congressional hearings and in [a letter](https://www.thefrenchfiles.com/records/email/5b00e9353b8632f0a987f2d8?returnTo=%2F%23search-results&ref=rangemedia.co) to the legislature. He [offered](https://www.thefrenchfiles.com/records/email/085f6ab36c50946dc3a2fa26?ref=rangemedia.co) Sean Boyd, the CEO of a developer that wants to build a “hyperscale” data center on the West Plains, a chance to edit his letter before French sent it to the legislature on February 9.

Though [no one knew](https://www.rangemedia.co/commissioner-al-french-on-data-centers-spokane-county-is-not-closed-for-business/) about French’s pre-publication-review offer, or his ongoing conversations with Boyd about building a data center in Spokane County, folks started wondering whether data center developers were eyeing the county. 

Their intuition was right. 

RANGE has found that various parties want to build at least four separate data centers in the county. At least two of those data centers would be so-called [“hyperscale” data centers](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/hyperscale-data-center?ref=rangemedia.co) — the biggest facilities, which draw more than 100 megawatts of powers and operate most often for massive tech companies like Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.

Here they are:

#### Apricus Energy Partners - Big Rock Data Center

What we know:  
\- Company: [Apricus Energy Partners](https://www.apricusenergypartners.com/?ref=rangemedia.co)  
\- Type: hyperscale data center   
\- Location: potentially just west of the West Plains Park & Ride   
\- Acreage: 514   
\- Electricity draw: 1,000 megawatts   
\- Water usage. between 250,000 and 1 million per day

This is the big one and the one we know the most about — but that second part is not by design. One reason we know what we know is because Spokanite Brittany Anderson dug up and published a tranche of documents showing French had been in conversations with Apricus’s Boyd about its proposed data center since at least August of 2024\. She and a group of fellow activists are constantly finding new information and updating two websites that serve as clearinghouses for their research, [nospokanedatacenter.com](http://nospokanedatacenter.com/?ref=rangemedia.co) and [thefrenchfiles.com](http://thefrenchfiles.com/?ref=rangemedia.co). 

The Big Rock Data Center would be a supplementary facility to a hydrogen fuel plant proposed by Apricus Energy Partners, the company Boyd leads. The company has not applied for building permits. But even as a project that seems somewhat ancillary to another, this data center would be a massive facility. Early documents uncovered by activists describe a 514-acre site for a data center that would eventually draw 1,000 megawatts — nearly as much as the rest of the county combined and 10-fold the size of a facility that would qualify as a hyperscale data center. Under initial proposals, its power usage would ramp up from 200 megawatts in 2027 to the full 1,000 after several years.

Spokane County’s largest energy provider, Avista Corp., did a feasibility study for the proposed data center that found the utility would not be able to provide that much juice through existing infrastructure or planned expansion projects. This probably means Apricus would need to build its own new power infrastructure.

A site where it may be located is at the address 11703 Medical Lake Road, which is located just west of the West Plains Park & Ride and sits directly atop a so-called “critical aquifer recharge area” and neighboring several residential properties, according to a [county map](https://docaccess.com/docviewer.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spokanecounty.gov%2FDocumentCenter%2FView%2F106&url%5Fhash=66b70c1d44079b6423b727b4453218aa4db0d54a646ab596f847a958c0829bfe&domain=spokanecounty.gov&site=77c5ed44-107e-459a-93fb-649b1aa308a6&found%5Fon=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spokanecounty.gov%2F5177%2FMaps&ref=rangemedia.co). (More on that in our section on proposed zoning regulations.)

This project would be the first development Apricus has apparently overseen anywhere. Apricus has not filed an application to build a data center. It’s not clear how Apricus would finance such a large project. Investors are a hard sell on hyperscale data center financing unless a project has backing from a top-tier tech giant like Apple or Meta.

#### Avista’s mysterious ‘large-load’ customer

What we know:  
\- Company: unknown   
\- Type: hyperscale data center   
\- Location: Possible northwest of Spokane proper near the old Kaiser aluminum mill   
\- Acreage: 203  
\- Electricity draw: 500 megawatts   
\- Water usage: unknown

On its first quarterly earnings call this spring, officials at [Avista told](https://www.rangemedia.co/who-where-we-dont-know-but-avista-is-entertaining-a-large-data-center/) investors that it was talking to a data center developer to build a large data center near Spokane. Though only about half the size of the Apricus proposal, this 500-megawatt proposal would consume about two-thirds of the entire amount of power all of Spokane County uses at a given moment. City officials confirmed one potential site for this project would have been near the old Kaiser aluminum mill in Mead at a property commercial real estate company Daines Capital [had listed](https://www.rangemedia.co/who-where-we-dont-know-but-avista-is-entertaining-a-large-data-center/#:~:text=A%20screenshot%20of%20the%20first%20page%20of%20the%20Daines%20Capital%20PDF.) as a “Heavy Industrial/Data Center Site.”

But even though it was clear to investors about the nature of its potential customer, Avista did not tell ratepayers what it was doing until nearly a week after *The Spokesman-Review* [revealed](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/jun/03/avista-working-with-developer-to-provide-massive-a/?ref=rangemedia.co) in early June it had been in talks with what it was calling a “large-load” customer for the data center project. 

After protesters began showing up to the utility’s headquarters every Friday morning, [Avista paused](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/jun/12/avista-puts-data-center-negotiations-on-pause/?ref=rangemedia.co) negotiations with its customer. This chain of events convinced the Spokane City Council to implement its moratorium. The identity of the customer has never been revealed.

#### Tech hub

What we know:  
\- Company: unknown   
\- Type: data center of unspecified size  
\- Location: unknown  
\- Acreage: unknown  
\- Electricity draw: unknown   
\- Water usage: unknown

Much less is known about this potential data center than the previous two.

The Spokane Aerospace Tech Hub, also known as the American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center, is a heavily subsidized consortium of more than 50 companies that are developing and want to manufacture increasingly state-of-the-art airplane technology. The partners include a who’s who of defense contractors and tech behemoths — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin — that have linked arms with local governments, colleges and universities, labor unions and federal agencies to advance aerospace technology. It is headquartered in Airway Heights.

When the Spokane City Council was getting ready to vote on its data center moratorium in June, Council Member Zack Zappone worried that the move would affect the tech hub because the project wanted to lease some of its land to a data center developer. Those comments are some of the sole public references to a data center at the tech hub, and it’s not clear where such a data center might be built or how big it would be.

#### Sovereign Data Center

What we know:  
\- Company: [Sovereign Data Centers](https://www.sovereigndatacenters.com/?ref=rangemedia.co)   
\- Type: data center of unspecified size  
\- Location: unknown  
\- Acreage: unknown  
\- Electricity draw: unknown   
\- Water usage: unknown

As it came to light that Avista Corp. had been in talks with a data center developer, a small group of local activists started scouring the internet for information and dumping their findings into group chats. One stumbled across the website of a company called [Sovereign Data Centers](https://www.sovereigndatacenters.com/?ref=rangemedia.co), which listed several Native Tribes as partners in their project to bring data centers to Indigenous reservations. Partner #1: The Spokane Tribe of Indians. Shortly after a screenshot of that version of the website circulated in mass texts, the operator of the website removed its tribal partners. (See the screenshot below.)

Sovereign Data Centers’ slogan reads: “Partnering with Tribes to invest in the future with high-density cloud compute & AI hyperscale infrastructure, built on sovereign land, powered by sustainable energy.” It says it wants to develop six total tribal data centers that would collectively use 17.5 gigawatts — equivalent to the amount consumed by 5.1 million American homes — by 2033, eventually bringing in $31.5 billion in revenue. 

But its website does not describe any active projects or past accomplishments. It has a contact email, but no one returned two requests for comment to confirm more detailed information. The Administrative Division of the Spokane Tribe did not return a request for comment. Like the tech hub data center, there is very little public information about this potential project. The website does not clarify where the data centers would be built.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/09/data-src-image-9cf8063f-fd97-4d3c-9226-ec75f1be8941.png)

### How large data centers may affect public health

Data centers operate all the time, day and night, to meet the needs of proliferating internet, cloud storage and AI usage. Because they can never shut down, they never stop emitting noise or consuming electricity or water. If a power source fails, data centers use diesel and natural gas generators to fill the gap. They tend to occupy large campuses with little vegetation. That, combined with high levels of energy use, increases temperatures around them. 

Here is how existing data centers affect the health of surrounding communities:

#### Air pollution

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology [reported](https://news.mit.edu/2025/responding-to-generative-ai-climate-impact-0930?ref=rangemedia.co) last year that about 60% of new data center electricity consumption over the next decade will come from fossil fuels, including diesel and natural gas. This amount would be the equivalent of about 220 million gas-powered cars driving 5,000 miles. Apricus has already started sourcing natural gas generators for the facility it has proposed on the West Plains. Particulate matter from these generators has the potential to worsen respiratory problems for people who live near a facility. *The New York Times* [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/climate/ai-data-centers-air-pollution-health.html?ref=rangemedia.co) this month that emissions from data centers could contribute to 600,000 asthma cases by 2028\. 

#### Water pollution

The latest data center technology is touted as protecting the environment from some of the toxic chemicals the facilities use and keep onsite. But across the country, data centers have been found to leak harmful chemicals into water supplies. As *The Guardian* [reported](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/08/us-datacenters-wastewater-pollution?ref=rangemedia.co) this month, data center developments have sucked water out of different systems, and when they discharge that water into the public sphere, it has been found to contain harmful bacteria, heavy metals, forever chemicals. Data center cycles also 

#### Noise & infrasound

The use of electric and cooling equipment at data centers, coupled with the intermittent testing and use of the diesel generators, creates a constant low hum that over time can have significant health effects for people who live nearby. [This is different](https://www.stlpr.org/health-science-environment/2026-09-24/st-louis-scientist-data-center-noise-pollution?ref=rangemedia.co) from the normal traffic noise that can fluctuate with work schedules and doesn’t constantly harangue people who experience it. This constancy is thought to cause higher rates of stress, sleep disruption, high blood pressure and depression. 

Perhaps more insidious, infrasound is a kind of sound emitted by data centers that is not detectable by human ears. Because of its low frequency, below 20 hertz, it can travel long distances. But its quietness shouldn’t fool anyone: [infrasound can](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8411947/?ref=rangemedia.co) disrupt sleep, increase anxiety and cause fatigue and psychological distress, especially when experienced over prolonged periods of time.

#### Heat

Finally, data centers heat up an already warming world. A [recent study](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.20897?ref=rangemedia.co) by researchers at Cambridge University found that once operations start at data centers, the temperature in the surrounding areas increases by between 3.6 degrees and 16.2 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers said this “urban heat island” effect is currently impacting hundreds of millions of people globally. 

### What are the water sources and how are they threatened?

Listening to conversations about water protection in Spokane County, one often hears the phrase “the aquifer.” An aquifer is essentially an underground river that filters itself through subterranean gravels, creating a cold and clean water source for people and societies to drill wells into. In Spokane County, “the aquifer” likely refers to the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, by far the biggest in the region. But there are other, separate aquifers to Spokane’s west that also need to be considered.

Though no proposal has mentioned tapping directly into the local aquifers, data centers could use the aquifers to cool their equipment, which carries an environmental cost. Larger facilities can use anywhere between 300,000 to 5 million gallons each day. So how might that affect *our* local water supplies?

#### SVRP aquifer

Half a million people in Eastern Washington and many in North Idaho poke their straws into the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which flows through the porous cobble laid down by the Bretz Floods thousands of years ago and feeds the Spokane River.

It’s an essential resource with many exploiters and a few vocal protectors, like the Riverkeeper and local governments that tax constituents in an “[aquifer protection district](https://www.spokanecounty.gov/1530/Aquifer-Protection-Area?ref=rangemedia.co)” to pay for programs that preserve the health of the water source. It isn’t clear whether any proposed data center would be located over this aquifer.

#### West Plains aquifers

But there’s another and completely separate aquifer — really, a complex of aquifers — that flows under the West Plains and, until 2017, provided drinking water to municipal water users in Airway Heights. That year, the two airports in Airway Heights [discovered](https://www.rangemedia.co/poisoning-wells-pfas-west-plains-forever-chemicals-spokane-county/) they had contaminated these aquifers with fire-fighting foam containing “forever chemicals” that are linked to some deadly forms of cancer and other serious diseases, a saga people who use the aquifer for drinking water have been grappling with ever since. 

If Apricus were to build on the site currently identified on Medical Lake Road, it would sit right above the land where those aquifers are recharged by natural water cycles. This worries West Plains water activists. They say that because data centers use forever chemicals to cool their equipment, to fight fires and as an ingredient in their components, a new data center development could further endanger an already contaminated water source.

West Plains aquifers do not benefit from an aquifer protection district like the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer does.

The Apricus proposal says that it wants to use reclaimed water from Airway Heights and potable water from Spokane for coolant.

### What is being proposed in the zoning rules? What is not?

When it established its pause on data center approvals, the commission tasked the county’s planning and legal staff to compile a proposed slate of zoning regulations that would restrict the ways data centers can impact the surrounding community. The department, working from a framework of existing regulations proposed by national organizations, is soliciting community feedback that will be incorporated into its proposal for the County Commission, Planning Director Scott Chesney told RANGE.

According to a September 17 presentation Chesney gave to the Spokane County Planning Commission, which will give the official recommendations to the county commission, those community recommendations include requiring data center developers to:

- Conduct water feasibility studies, follow restrictions on data center water use during droughts, limit normal water use and use systems that don’t leak contaminants into the environment
- Not rely on public wastewater systems or groundwater or local water supplies for cooling resources, and remove any contaminants from used water before returning it to any ecosystem
- Not use forever chemicals or other hazardous substances as coolant and test the groundwater for such pollutants
- Maintain wildlife corridors and avoid (rather than fix) impacts on habitats
- Use 100% renewable energy
- Be the first line for power cuts in the case of electricity blackouts
- Not locate a data center within five miles of a critical aquifer recharge area (this provision would effectively bar the Apricus project as proposed)
- Follow a community benefit agreement

These are only a few of the zoning proposals advanced through citizen feedback. You can watch Chesney’s full presentation (and get a little flavor of the anti-data center activism) [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8j5SLSItig&ref=rangemedia.co). 

### How are the political lines shaping up around data centers?

As pretty much every national news outlet has reported recently, data centers have become a clarion call in the run-up to the November 3 midterm elections, as candidates have staked out their ground on the controversial projects. As tech moguls suddenly [warned](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14dpgm0rg4o?ref=rangemedia.co) the public that the artificial intelligence that data centers power has the potential to kill off humanity within the decade and people mobilize against data centers, politicians who’ve supported data centers have tried to backtrack. 

Generally, conservatives who favor more freedom for developers to build seem slightly more in favor of data centers. One of the clearest calls to support data centers came from President Donald Trump, who in August [told opponents](https://abcnews.com/Politics/data-reign-trump-stands-firmly-controversial-data-centers/story?id=136092127&ref=rangemedia.co) of the facilities that “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

But the centers have emerged as one of the few topics over which people across the political spectrum can agree. Candidates for office — mainly conservatives — [are disavowing](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/politics/data-centers-midterm-elections.html?ref=rangemedia.co) the facilities across the country after being criticized for cozying up to Big Tech. Locally, six of seven Spokane City Council members voted for the city moratorium, the county commission voted unanimously for its pause, and county Planning Director Scott Chesney told the commission about 90% of the thousands of citizen comments on data centers the department has recently received said, “Don’t do it.”

Still, the issue carries nuance in conservative circles in Spokane County. While the county GOP approved a [resolution](https://spokanegop.com/hubfs/2026%20Caucus%20and%20Convention/Convention/Resolutions/Final%20Packages/2026%20Spokane%20County%20GOP%20Resolutions%5FAdopted%20Aug-22-2026.pdf?hsLang=en&ref=rangemedia.co) at its August convention calling for a moratorium of unspecified length, some of the most prominent Republicans representing our region at various levels of government seem to want to open the door — if a developer can commit to not harming the environment and not impacting electricity rates in the county. Meanwhile, a candidate for the seat Commissioner Mary Brooks will vacate in January is campaigning explicitly to exclude data centers from the county.

Here is where they’ve stood:

#### Michael Baumgartner

As the US representative for the 5th District, Baumgartner [introduced](https://baumgartner.house.gov/2026/07/05/op-ed-america-can-win-the-ai-race-without-sending-the-bill-to-working-families/?ref=rangemedia.co) a data center bill that would require developers to foot the bill for their power footprints and not pass costs along to ratepayers, but he emphasizes that the US needs to stay ahead of China in the “AI race”.

#### Al French

Probably the most vocal advocate for data centers in Spokane County, the commissioner has been in talks for years with data center center developers — some of which he claims to have had already rejected — to bring a data center to the West Plains, which lay in his district. When Jordan and Waldref introduced their moratorium proposal to the commission, French suggested data center opponents are “anti-American.” 

After he was confronted at a later meeting by data center opponents who’d served in the military, he defended himself partly by saying it was part of his central duty as a commissioner to bring data centers into the county. “It’s what I do,” he said.

French told newspapers during his 2024 reelection campaign that this will be his last term.

#### Mary Brooks

Brooks, who chairs the commission and is also retiring at the end of her term early next year, has been the most mercurial voice in the data center debate. She opposed Waldref’s and Jordan’s initial moratorium proposal, saying the term signals to developers that the county “is closed for business.” But she emphasized that the commission should move forward on data centers in a responsible way.

#### Josh Kerns

Commissioner Kerns, who entered the debate over regulating data centers by saying the commission should “move at the speed of business” rather than government, seems to have slowed down. As the only conservative on the commission who will seek reelection, he said he told RANGE he will vote to extend the county’s pause on data center approvals if he is not satisfied by the proposed zoning restrictions by December 15.

#### The libs

Commissioners Jordan and Waldref have both said they want a longer moratorium on data centers than the four months afforded by the one currently in place and have been vocal about the large volume of emails they get from constituents opposing data centers.

#### Open seat

When Brooks’s seat opens up, she will be replaced by one of two women: state Representative Suzanne Schmidt, R-Spokane Valley, who is leaving the legislature, or Rachelle Miller, an independent who won enough write-in votes in the primary to qualify her for the midterm ballot. Miller is primarily running in opposition to data centers and told RANGE she doesn’t think a new data center is appropriate for Spokane County. Schmidt, for her part, told RANGE she is open to data centers if they don’t harm ratepayers or the environment.

\*\*\*

**That’s it**, folks. We want this to be a living document we can add to. As this story develops, we’ll update to include new information. If you think we missed something, email us [here](https://www.rangemedia.co/about/#:~:text=Email%20us%C2%A0at%C2%A0team%40rangemedia.co).