Bonner Data Center

Our most precious resource is water, not AI.

I beg of you to reject this AI data center. We are community built on being stewards of our outdoor trails and rivers. The noise pollution, water pollution and diverting of our energy and water resources will be permanent and as other data centers have shown, will grow exponentially. These data centers often under estimate by huge amounts just to get approved and then pillage the resources. As the last best place, we cannot succumb to big tech abusing our land and resources. Mother Earth deserves better! If we don't fight for the future of the land, who will? It will be too late. You must stop this!!!!

The Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers have already had enough negative effects caused by human indifference. But to defile our county and state by putting a data center on the banks of either of these rivers would be a travesty. We have seen what these centers emit into their respective environments. They are destructive and destroy the environments in which they are placed. Montanans are aware that we live in the last best place, and we will not allow these foreign agents come into our communities and poison our lives. Please find it within yourselves to ensure that this center is not allowed to be built on the banks of our waters. Keep Montana pristine, beautiful, and untouched by corporate interests.

Hello,

The Missoula County community clearly has no interest in a data center housed anywhere in the community, specifically in Bonner. I strongly encourage the board to reject this project and any future projects related to data centers in our community.

The Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers are the life blood of Missoula and its community members. For anglers, floaters, pets and wildlife, these rivers are sacred.

We cannot allow this data center to be built by a billionaire who has no consideration for the importance of these rivers in our community. This decision will affect the daily lives of every single person in the community of Missoula and Bonner alike and the only person who stands to benefit from it being built is the CEO.

Please consider the lives of our community members and wildlife in your decision to say NO to the Bonner Data Center.

Dear Members of the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use Board,

I have read through many comments here that I feel truly express most of your constituents concerns: noise, quality of life for nearby residents, water use and environmental impacts, and concerns about what happens when promises and guarantees are inevitably not held due to ease, convenience, and profit.

If I had time, I'd include all the details of my concerns others have expressed.

But I am a busy toddler mom, in your neighboring state, downstream of your water system.

Locally North Idaho bodies of water are already under pressure from local development, mining ventures, and changes in weather patterns. My ask of the board is to please deeply consider the reaching impact this decision will make not just to the people that get a true vote in your system, but to those of us that live out of town, out of county, and out of state that feel helpless in affecting your decision.

I love the area I grew up in because of its raw beauty. That is slowly disappearing. We already have to test our children for lead if they choose to swim in our local waters. Adding an industry as resource consuming as a potentially ever growing data center would have irreversible effects on the local environment and beyond.

I am not interested in hearing or accepting mitigation efforts. Prevention is the best cure.

I hope to be able to see my child and his future children enjoy Idaho, Montana, and Washington as I have. Thank you for considering your close neighbors input

Dear Members of the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use Board,

I have read through many comments here that I feel truly express most of your constituents concerns: noise, quality of life for nearby residents, water use and environmental impacts, and concerns about what happens when promises and guarantees are inevitably not held due to ease, convenience, and profit.

If I had time, I'd include all the details of my concerns others have expressed.

But I am a busy toddler mom, in your neighboring state, downstream of your water system.

Locally North Idaho bodies of water are already under pressure from local development, mining ventures, and changes in weather patterns. My ask of the board is to please deeply consider the reaching impact this decision will make not just to the people that get a true vote in your system, but to those of us that live out of town, out of county, and out of state that feel helpless in affecting your decision.

I love the area I grew up in because of its raw beauty. That is slowly disappearing. We already have to test our children for lead if they choose to swim in our local waters. Adding an industry as resource consuming as a potentially ever growing data center would have irreversible effects on the local environment and beyond.

I am not interested in hearing or accepting mitigation efforts. Prevention is the best cure.

I hope to be able to see my child and his future children enjoy Idaho, Montana, and Washington as I have. Thank you for considering your close neighbors input.

Dear Members of the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use Board,

I am a Missoula citizen who has lived here on and off throughout my life and keep coming back because of my great love of the landscape that Montana gives us--the wild, untouched, untamed, outdoors.

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed Krambu AI data center development in Bonner, Montana.

While technological innovation and economic development can bring benefits, they should never come at the expense of our community’s natural resources and long-term environmental health. One of my primary concerns regarding this project is the significant demand for water required to operate and cool large-scale AI data centers.

Water is one of western Montana’s most valuable and limited resources. The potential for substantial water withdrawal raises serious questions about long-term sustainability, especially as our region faces increasing pressures from drought, climate variability, population growth, and competing demands on local water systems.

Beyond quantity, water quality is equally important. Industrial-scale facilities carry risks related to wastewater management, thermal impacts, infrastructure strain, and accidental contamination. Residents should not be asked to accept uncertainty regarding impacts to local groundwater, rivers, fisheries, or drinking water resources.

Bonner and the greater Missoula area are defined by clean water, healthy ecosystems, and outdoor resources that support our quality of life, local recreation, and regional economy. These assets cannot be easily restored once compromised. Development decisions of this scale must prioritize environmental stewardship and community well-being over short-term economic promises.

I urge decision-makers to fully evaluate the long-term environmental impacts of this proposal, particularly regarding water consumption and water quality, and to proceed with extreme caution. Our water resources are too important to risk without thorough analysis, transparency, and meaningful public input.

For these reasons, I strongly oppose the Krambu AI data center proposal in Bonner.

At what cost?
https://youtu.be/t-8TDOFqkQA?si=D-Eeg8FxC4mJqqdm

Dear Members of the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use Board,

I was born in Missoula—my father worked at a mill owned by Champion International—and while I have not lived there for many years, I remember it as a uniquely beautiful place. I'm on the east coast now, and while we have our own kind of natural beauty, we don't have anything like you do. I am saddened and horrified to think of a data center being built in Missoula, and I hope you listen to the many, many members of your community—the people whose interests you are supposed to represent—who are telling you that they do not want this.

At this point, it is a known fact that data centers cause immense misery for the communities that have the misfortune to "host" them: noise pollution, light pollution, plummeting property values, skyrocketing electric bills, contamination of groundwater and waterways, overstrained water supplies . . . (Maybe they'll have to make a new movie: "A River Doesn't Run Through It.") To make the deal even rawer, once they're operational these facilities require minimal staffing, much of it remote; they create only a tiny handful of long-term local jobs.

I hope that the Board will learn from the many, many communities around this country that have been negatively impacted by data centers. Krambu doesn't have some magic secret to building a special new kind of data center that doesn't damage the environment, degrade property values, and immiserate the people around it. No such thing exists. Krambu serves the agendas of Silicon Valley billionaires, and the only people whose satisfaction they care about are investors who live in fancy mansions many hundreds of miles away from you; you're just their marks. Their dishonesty and disregard for Missoulans should be clear from the information they withheld in their previous applications, their misleading statements about "closed loop" cooling systems, and their half-baked, greenwashing nonsense about using heat capture to power hydroponic farming. Let's be real. The folks at Krambu aren't planning to grow any tomoatoes. The only thing they're planning to grow is their data center, which they hope to turn into a mega campus. Think long and hard before you let them get their foot in the door.

I know that I'm not your constituent, but I believe that my sentiments echo those of your constituents, and I hope that you will do the right thing on their behalf. My memory of Missoula is that it is beautiful, and I pray that it will stay that way (and that there will still be a river running through it, uncontaminated by industrial coolant).

I am writing to express my very strong opposition to the proposed Bonner data center.

I feel like these data centers and AI in general are being foisted upon us against our will. I am concerned about the environmental impacts, as well as the likely increases on our already high energy bills. From what I have read, Krambu has been dishonest about the scale and capacity of what they are proposing to build. It already looks bad on paper, but I feel like it will be much worse in reality.

Data centers are notorious for consuming vast amounts of water and energy, and those costs are going to negatively impact residents of Bonner as well as the greater Missoula County area.

The proposed site is right on the river, near an elementary school, and houses. It is right in the middle of a vibrant community whose residents deserve to live in a healthy environment without the constant noise pollution, light pollution, increased energy and environmental costs.

I see nothing positive about these centers. They serve to enrich already obscenely rich tech oligarchs, and bring nothing but negative consequences to the communities they go into.

Please keep data centers out of Bonner, and out of the state of Montana. It goes against everything good that people value about living here.

Dear Members of the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use Board,

I am writing in opposition to the proposed Bonner Data Center at 9314 Bonner Mill Road. I understand that the property is zoned industrial and that the question before the Board is not whether a data center is generally allowed, but whether this specific industrial use is compatible with nearby residential properties. Based on the information currently available, I do not believe the applicant has met that burden.

This proposal may be described as reusing an existing building, but the use itself is not minor. A high-performance computing data center operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a continuous industrial operation. The impacts do not stop at normal business hours. Nearby residents would be exposed to round-the-clock mechanical systems, cooling equipment, lighting, utility activity, and emergency response risks. That is a very different impact than a traditional daytime industrial use.

My first concern is water. The applicant proposes to use adiabatic and evaporative cooling towers supplied by an existing fire suppression well. That raises several unanswered questions. How much water will be used during the hottest and driest parts of the year? What are the peak daily withdrawals, not just monthly averages? What effect could that have on nearby wells, groundwater levels, water rights, and fire suppression capacity? If the well is currently tied to fire protection, the County should not approve a use that may compete with or weaken that function without a full independent hydrologic review.

Second, the County should require a complete independent noise study before any approval. Cooling towers, pumps, fans, transformers, and other mechanical systems can create a constant low-frequency hum that is especially noticeable at night. A data center is not quiet simply because it has limited employees or vehicle traffic. The relevant question is what surrounding residents will hear at their homes, on their porches, and while trying to sleep. Any noise analysis should measure cumulative equipment noise at the nearest residences, include nighttime conditions, account for tonal and low-frequency noise, and require enforceable limits with ongoing monitoring.

Third, the scale of the electrical demand is a major compatibility issue. The public information says the first phase may use approximately 7 MW, with potential expansion to 29 MW. Other public reporting has raised questions about whether future buildout could go even higher depending on available power and market demand. The Board should not evaluate this as only a 7 MW project if the site, equipment, and business model are designed to scale. The County should require the applicant to disclose the maximum intended power use and should condition any approval so expansion cannot occur without a new public hearing.

Fourth, the applicant’s statement that no backup generators are proposed should not be treated as a benefit without further explanation. A 24/7 data center with no backup generation creates obvious operational and emergency questions. What happens during an outage? Will temporary generators be brought in later? Will diesel generators be requested in a future permit after the special exception has already been granted? Will battery systems or other hazardous materials be used on site? These questions matter for fire protection, emergency access, hazardous materials management, noise, and air quality.

Fifth, the County should not rely on promises that will be reviewed later through an administrative zoning compliance permit. The special exception hearing is the public’s opportunity to address compatibility. If the major issues are deferred until later administrative review, nearby residents lose meaningful public input on the very impacts that matter most: water, noise, visual screening, lighting, grid infrastructure, fire protection, and expansion. Any conditions must be specific, enforceable, and attached now, not left to future assumptions.

I also urge the Board to consider the pattern of incomplete applications. The County has already requested more information multiple times, and the hearing has been postponed while the developer continues finalizing materials. That alone shows the public does not yet have a complete record. A project of this scale should not be approved until the applicant provides full, independent, and reviewable studies on water use, groundwater impacts, noise, electrical infrastructure, fire protection, hazardous materials, wastewater, vapor drift, icing, lighting, and future expansion.

If the Board is not prepared to deny the special exception outright, then at minimum it should require the applicant to return with a complete application and should impose strict conditions, including:

1. A third-party hydrologic study paid for by the applicant but selected or approved by the County.
2. Disclosure of peak daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual water use at each phase of expansion.
3. A third-party noise study based on full buildout, nighttime operation, low-frequency noise, and nearest residential receptors.
4. Continuous noise and water monitoring with public reporting.
5. A hard cap on electrical load, water use, and cooling equipment unless a new public hearing is held.
6. A prohibition on future backup generators, temporary generators, or major battery systems without a new public hearing.
7. A full emergency response and fire protection plan reviewed by local responders.
8. Enforceable limits on lighting, glare, vapor drift, icing, and visual impacts.
9. A requirement that any expansion beyond the initial phase return to the Land Use Board.

Bonner has already carried the burden of heavy industrial use for generations. Reusing the mill site may sound reasonable, but that does not mean every new industrial use is automatically compatible with nearby homes, schools, and the surrounding community. A 24/7 AI data center creates unique impacts that the County must evaluate carefully and publicly.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask the Board to deny the special exception unless and until the applicant can clearly prove that this project will not harm nearby residents, local water resources, public infrastructure, emergency services, or quality of life.

Thank you for your consideration.

Rudy G
Bozeman, MT

Hello Members of the Board,

I strongly oppose the Special Exception request for Krambu's proposed AI data center at the Bonner Mill site. Under the Special Exception framework, the applicant must definitively prove compatibility with the surrounding community and natural environment. They have not done that.

The Board doesn't need to speculate about what an industrial computing facility at this site looks like. Hyperblock's bitcoin mine operated here from 2017 to 2020. Residents complained immediately about the hum from over 450 cooling fans. The company replaced 144 fans. It didn't help. The county declared a public emergency and enacted interim zoning controls in 2019. Hyperblock filed for bankruptcy. Krambu now wants to bring a 29-megawatt AI data center to the same footprint. Hyperblock peaked at 20 megawatts before the county intervened. We are being asked to approve something larger and more intensive than what already broke this neighborhood, on the exact same site.

Krambu's CEO publicly promised roughly two permanent employees per megawatt. Their own permit application, submitted under penalty of perjury, states the facility "will not require regular staffing" and will generate no pedestrian traffic. The community is being asked to absorb 100% of the risk for a facility that, by its own legal admission, employs virtually no one locally.

The Blackfoot watershed is already in crisis. Montana's 2024 winter was among the worst for snowpack in 25 years. The Blackfoot dropped below 500 cfs in late July for the second year in a row, triggering hoot-owl fishing restrictions both years. Outfitters note that for 20 years, those restrictions weren't a thing on the Blackfoot. Now they're routine. Krambu describes their system as a "closed loop" using 2,000 gallons per year, but that figure only accounts for the internal fluid that fills the pipes. Their application separately documents three evaporative coolers consuming 50,000 gallons per month, which is the water that actually runs the system and evaporates into the air permanently. The Board should know which number reflects the real draw on the aquifer before approving a facility 60 yards from a river that took a $120 million Superfund cleanup to recover.

In other real-life examples, we can reference The Dalles, Oregon, where Google's data centers now consume 29% of that city's entire water supply. The city's population grew 12% over the same period the data centers' water use grew 316%. Missoula County's 120,000 residents share the watershed this facility would draw from.

Beyond water, lithium-ion battery fires are not ordinary fires. They release toxic gases, spread on their own, and are extraordinarily difficult to extinguish. The Bonner-Milltown fire department is a community department, not an industrial hazmat team. And a 29-megawatt facility designed to scale to 100 megawatts will place significant strain on NorthWestern Energy's grid. In states with heavy data center concentrations, residential electricity prices have increased by up to 267% over five years. Montana ratepayers should not subsidize that.

This application does not meet the burden of proof required for a Special Exception. This community has already paid the price once for approving industrial computing at this site. Respectfully, the Board should not ask us to pay it again.

I very strongly oppose this data center. I live a mile away. I cannot think of a worse outcome for the Bonner Development. While I completely understand that the group really could use a large buissness in the massive building badly and that cannot be easy to find right now at all I believe that this falls on the Missoula County heavily as the Bonner Development Group has been excellent but obviously needs help in sustaining a major part of Bonner's Future. They are a quality business group and have proven themselves to a major asset of the area. But they have had bad luck with securing a renter due to economy. The County has not helped them at all which they should have been doing heavily for the last 10 years. This is the bigger problem I believe of helping that area by whatever means since it has so much future potential. It's industrial and needs to be there but a Data Center is NOT THE ANSWER. Just all the developers were able to even have any interest in for a renter it's not there fault to consider this it is the county not working correctly to make things work out here.
Been floating the Blackfoot since for almost 40 years. Last year was far and away the most concerning for the health of the river and algae, it was horrifying actually. This is my concern related to the Data center. Out of country 7,000 miles away on vacation the Blackfoot river came up and with with a big smile I said yes it really is still amazing and right by me hope you can see it before Missoula County poor planning jeopardize it forever . DON'T MESS WITH THAT SMILE of pride I gave that tourist Missoula county.
Oh' and fix our feakin gravel road on Cross St. You have got to be kidding me Missoula County Road Dept. the road is beyond unacceptable. Your are pathetic in maintaining our road, do better!

I strongly oppose the proposed Bonner data center and any future data center developments in Missoula or Montana.

Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water while providing very few long-term jobs or meaningful community benefits. In a state already facing growing pressure on water resources, wildfire risk, fisheries, and energy infrastructure, it is reckless to approve industrial projects that will further strain these systems for the benefit of out-of-state tech interests.

Missoula and Montana should not sacrifice clean rivers, quiet communities, wildlife habitat, and affordable utilities to support energy-intensive AI infrastructure. These facilities are known to increase local electricity demand, drive up utility costs for residents, generate constant industrial noise, and contribute to air and light pollution. The proposed Bonner site sits near homes, schools, the Blackfoot and Clark Fork river corridors, and critical fish habitat — places that define this community and economy.

Montanans have worked hard to protect our natural landscapes, outdoor heritage, and quality of life. Once these impacts occur, they cannot easily be reversed. We should be investing in sustainable industries that strengthen local communities, not developments that extract Montana’s resources while leaving residents to bear the long-term environmental and financial costs.

Please deny this proposal and reject future data center expansion in Missoula County and throughout Montana.

I am strongly opposed to the Krambu Data Center. As a montananresident and avid outdoorsmen i am deeply concerned about the environment impact the data center will have on the river, ecosystem, and wildlife in that area, as well as the quality of life for the residents that live nearby. We are already seeing huge issues with other data centers across the country. Many have been staying how awful the noise pollution is. To subject Bonner residents to that is incredibly cruel. Not to mention the amount of energy that this data center will need. The data center by Lake Tahoe is using so much energy, the energy company has abandoned the residents nearby in order to continue to fuel the data center. And if that seems unlikely, I would hate to see what energy bills will skyrocket to. The data center just is not worth throwing the people of montana under the bus.

I've been watching the results and commentary from citizens all across the country who live near data centers and their comments are clear - data centers emit sleep-disrupting sounds, they elevate the temperature of the surrounding area, they pollute waterways and the protected species in them (like trout in the Blackfoot), they create few long-term jobs, and they serve no one but their shareholders. Krambu promises none of these things will happen, but what happens when they inevitably do? There is no such thing as a "clean" data center. A nominal fine won't deter them when they're making millions, and who's left holding the bag? The citizens of Bonner and West Riverside who live and send their kids to school there.
Multiple reports suggest that OpenAI alone is set to lose $14 billion in 2026, as they spend far more money than they earn from investors and venture capital. There are studies showing the AI boom is slowing as people opt out and reject it, and some reports say nearly half of data center projects are delayed or canceled due to electrical grid bottlenecks and lack of infrastructure as states cannot keep up with the demand of both households whom they serve and the data centers who heap their costs on to those individual consumers.
Say no to this data center - they're bad for humans, the environment, and they're a bad long-term investment. Their affects will be felt by our kids and grandkids, not by the ultra-wealthy who don't have to live next door to them.

To whom it may concern,
The recent surge in data center construction around the country has shown that this technology is dangerous at its current, hardly-regulated status. Water and energy usage and light and noise pollution are a few of the most stressed. Putting this project near the Blackfoot threatens not just the river, but its fish and people downstream that rely on the cool water. Water taken from this river for cooling will return warmed and have dire impacts on the ecosystem.
Montana residents already face raising energy bills, these prices will only skyrocket with data center installation. Montanans don't want this.
Data centers are notorious for immense levels of light and noise pollution. In a small mountain town where the allure is an escape from the bustle of Missoula, this may be the last thing Bonner is looking for. As a 24/7 operation, there'd be no escape from the low hum and bright LEDs surrounding the building.
Please consider the people over the profit and consider, at least, a one-year moratorium on this project to allow for regulations to catch up, allowing the people to be put first.

Bonner does not need nor will it benefit from having a data center. The only beneficiaries will be the owners who have little regard for the what they will do to the enviroment. The electrical demand alone would say this project is not good for the area. The end result would be higher rates for other users in the area. Also they will use water no matter what they say, also the noise will disrupt the area.
As mentioned earlier we should not consider data centers at all.

Missoula County Land Managers, please consider a 1-year moratorium on data centers, like many municipalities have. This would allow time to better understand impacts and set appropriate regulations to protect both existing residents and business entities involved.