Bonner Data Center

What a pathetic idea for our town. Clear the dollar signs out of your eyes and wake up! AI data companies should never be trusted in any capacity. They are a drain on our resources, pollute our environment, and will negatively impact the power grid. They are also completely dishonest and fail to present actual facts about the resources they consume. Also how will a data center help reduce the cost of living in Missoula? Adding a data center will continue to drive up the price of homes and cost of living in Missoula. This company will bring in new employees from out of the area that will be paid very well and will create a bigger financial imbalance in town. Any member of Missoula government that votes for a data center should be recalled immediately.

I don't think that this project is in the community's best interest. I think that it is resource intensive and comes with a high probability of negative environmental consequence. As someone who lives nearby, I feel nervous at the thought of industry like this moving in so close to my home.

I like my water for drinking, not generating deepfakes and slop.

After reading the comments see no offered alternate ideas for the location, just supported reasons for I-we, dont like it. Anything going there will have an impact. So, if its not going to be something moving the region into the future, we should drop another fuel depot, recycling drop off center and a mini-mall of dispensarys- at least it woulnt sit vacant while some agency works quietly on funding for a shelter complex which will get approved without our input. If all the water/enviro change is happening, we'll have to eventually move further away from a tourism/ag base. Data is one option in a cleaner than a steel mill industry choice. Also, A.I. is letting us bloviate here so it isn't all bad...maybe. No, I dont have any financial dog in this hunt.

I feel for the Mill owner, and I understand that it has been hard to find a tenant for his largest building. However, I do not want a data center in our community. After attending the first public meeting and listening to the staff of Krambu speak, I do not feel any sort of confidence that they are being upfront and have our community’s best interest in mind. Most of their answers were vague, at best, and there are still a lot of unknowns around this particular type of data center because it will be one of the first of its kind. This kind of energy sucking and truly unnecessary kind of business does not belong near a residential areas and water sheds. So much more would need to be disclosed for me to be on board with this project, and I do not have confidence that this business has any intention of that.

As a Missoula resident, I do not want this data center. A data center in this location, or any location, puts natural resources, and in turn, local residents, at risk. Montana does not need data centers. Natural resources, water especially, are at a higher risk now more than ever before. Preventative measures are better than damage control. Listen to the people - we DO NOT want this.

There's not strong enough language in the world for how vehemently I am opposed to this project. Montanans don't need— and certainly do NOT want— this huge disaster for our Blackfoot river. We don't want this noise-polluting, energy-sucking monstrosity that will inevitably cause our already sky-high utility rates to go up.

There are other comments highlighting the ethical and social catastrophes that AI cause (see the MIT study on cognitive decline in AI users that at least one other commenter cited). That's reason enough to oppose this project that will create... just how many jobs for the community? Five? Six?

The CEO of the California-headquarted company Krambu called this an "AI factory." Call it what it really is: an urban heat island factory, a noise pollution factory, an online-disinformation factory, a cost-of-living-increasing factory... the list goes on and on.

As concerned neighbors, we are demanding that this project not be approved. There is so very little to gain, and so much to lose. Please, do the right thing for our community and do not approve this awful, awful project.

We don't want or need that here! It will affect and pollute our beautiful river and lands. we will continue to fight it

We don't need an AI data center in Bonner. As a Missoula resident, I am extremely wary of how plans can change from original promises, in terms of energy used, pollution expected and general impact contained. Things like this always balloon more than expected. Allowing this project opens the door to future projects getting pushed through. Once built, this will never go away. It needs to be extremely clear who is benefiting and why. If it is not clear, there is absolutely reason to be concerned.

We should absolutely not approve this. This story has already played out across the country, with the same result every time. This will only result in higher energy prices, environmental degradation, and no notable boost to the local economy. We should take a lesson from the numerous other communities this has happened to, and not allow this project to proceed, especially on the banks on the Blackfoot river, an invaluable treasure to our community. I strongly oppose this plan.

I would like to express dismay that this project is being considered. Several research studies have shown that data centers raise the temperature of the surrounding area (up to 6.2 miles away) by an average of 9.1 degrees. In an era of global warming this seems like a bad idea. Plus I doubt the residents of Bonner will be happy when they experience these higher temperatures.

Also, where is the water used to cool the center going to go? Into the river which does not bode well for fish or fishermen.

I am a constituent living in district 3, Missoula, Montana and am desperately urging you to please do everything in your power to protect our sacred lands, including forests, groundwater, air, and waterways from data centers. Though Montana has signed letters of intent to invite data centers into our state, data centers are a huge draw on public services and increase prices for local governments, residents, and municipalities to support their extreme energy usage. On top of that, these centers do little to nothing to reinvest resources or capital into the local economy. For local residents, including humans and wildlife, they create sound and light pollution, contaminate drinking water, use up valuable freshwater resources for cooling. This effectively destroys fish and wildlife habitat and ecosystems - on which many Montana residents depend for their food and livelihood - as well as reduces availability for agriculture and farming communities who depend on water to grow and raise food. Data centers in Montana would be catastrophic for every single resident. Please do everything you can to require these data centers to generate and use 100% renewable energy at the very least to reduce the financial and energy burden on your constituents.

It should not even be a question that this project needs to be cancelled.
Lack of contribution to the local community aside- this data center is going to result in infrasonic sound waves that are known to cause environmental damage and have effects on HUMAN HEALTH.
Data centers like these, however small, do not belong in populated areas. Full stop.

This project meets Missoula County Zoning guidelines and is an approved use for this property. The property owners need to lease this property. It is a major portion of the property and its occupancy impacts the Mill sites overall viability. Manufacturers are not seeking this Bonner location. We have low wages, high housing costs and huge transportation costs. Ther may not be any other uses for the site except for a data center. The Mill Manager reached out to numerous manufacturers without receiving any interest. This data center will pay an enormous amount of property and business equipment tax. The Bonner School and the Rural Fire Department should be in support of this opportunity. They use minimal water, it's a closed loop system. The noise level is below Missoula County standards. The construction jobs and the data center jobs will be above manufacturing job levels. I support this project.

Please do not go forward with a proposal or contract for this project. Even if a project like this moved forward, it would take years to fully understand the environmental, energy, and community impacts of something like this - and there is already talk of this opening in June. And once its here, its here to stay, as you can read from many other communities that had data centers built in them. They often need more water and energy than initially planned or promised. The company is unclear who their client would be for the data center, and without even knowing a client, how would they be making the promises they are already making on their impact to the community? What's more, with guaranteed impacts on the community and environment, I can't imagine the company has made any guarantees about generating local jobs or giving back to the community. I understand we are in the age of rapidly developing technology with astronomically growing needs, but this site is right next to the Blackfoot, a school, and many houses. I imagine the same promises this company is making now are the same made about the Smurfit-Stone site - and yes, this mill at least provided about 400-500 jobs to the community, but now this sits as an eyesore in our valley, an almost Superfund site, and no end in sight to who will clean it up or when. Bonner would be an awful place for a similar story. https://missoulacountyvoice.com/smurfit-stone-mill-site-cleanup/news_feed/the-smurfit-stone-story

As a Missoula resident I strongly oppose this plan. Building a data center like this has no benefit for our community. This project would pose numerous environmental and health problems for or community and give us nothing. The amount of power required would certainly affect our power supply. The radiation from this large of a center would cause long term health problems for those living nearby. No one benefits from this except the company. Please do not let them take advantage of our community for their own profit.

**Absolutely not.** We have nothing to gain from this and so very much to lose. Other comments here say plenty about that, so I’ll leave it there.

One thing though: on NPR today, the person proposing this data center said that its water requirements would not affect the Blackfoot River because water would come from the ground instead. Except…it’s all connected, from ground water to the river to broader impacts (as is everything). For example, see: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/fs20133001
Again, all costs, no benefit. NO to this awful idea!

I strongly oppose the data center. Data Centers like these pose environmental hazards and health risks to our community. This project will cause noise pollution to our Bonner and East Missoula community members and potentially cause long term health effects. The location of this near the Blackfoot river is a huge concern for recreation and one of our city's most valuable assets. Don't even get me started on the potential health impacts for Missoulians living downstream from this. Datacenters are power-hungry and will strain our grid, driving up costs for Missoula county residents. The supposed economic benefits this project will bring will be negligible because AI datacenters simply do not create a significant number of new job opportunities, and any benefits are heavily outweighed by the negative impacts. Don't let this AI company profit at our expense!

MIT did a study proving that artificial intelligence lowers cognitive ability and memory in users. AI has no benefit for our society, and Montana doesn't need that. I spent my entire life in Montana and just recently left for college to study environmental science so I can fight issues just like this. This won't give Missoula more money. Though this data center is supposed to use a "new source of renewable energy", we don't know what that is. For jobs? This will MAYBE provide ten jobs. The thing about artificial intelligence is that it can do all of our jobs. Society doesn't need more artificial intelligence! It's been shown useful in radiology, and only radiology. Generative AI, which is what this database would be used for, provides no benefits that outweigh the cost of mining what's necessary for the computers, the energy required to function, and the water it tends to use to cool down the huge computers. This would ruin views and our recreation around the area of Missoula. The datacenter will generate a constant noise, and people won't be able to enjoy the silence that nature provides.
Don't let this happen.

As a community member close to Bonner, I strongly oppose this AI data center.

The negative impacts to the community far outweigh a data center's possible positive effects. Noise pollution, light pollution and specific land management planning are just some of Krambu’s are clearly missing considerations in their application.

Please decline this contract moving forward as it will damage the Bonner and surrounding communities.