Bonner Data Center

Nothing good will come from adding an AI data center to our county. The added noise and water pollution is not something I want in this state. This state has always prided its self in being the big sky and the last thing I want to see added is a huge concrete building which will not only negatively affect noise and water quality, it will also negatively affect wild life pushing more animals away from their home. I want to ask that you all will consider rejecting this proposal of adding this AI data center to our beautiful state.

To the Missoula County Consolidated Land Use and Planning Board:

I am writing as a Missoula resident to oppose the Special Exception requested by Krambu, Inc. to operate an AI data center at 9314 Bonner Mill Road (the former UFP Edge planer building), and to urge the Board to deny it.

I want to be clear about what I am not arguing. I am not anti-technology, anti-AI, or anti-industry. I run a software company in Missoula and work with cloud infrastructure every day. My objection is narrower and, I believe, more defensible: this specific application, in this specific location, does not meet the standards Missoula County adopted in 2021 after the Hyperblock failure, and the record before the Board is not adequate to grant a Special Exception within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood and an elementary school.

Four concerns, in order of weight:

1. The application is materially incomplete and internally inconsistent. County planner Jennie Dixon has already found the initial submission incomplete. Krambu's electrical engineer publicly stated the initial request is 3 MW. The site manager has stated the project could grow to 20–30 MW under existing infrastructure. The application itself references capacity up to 29 MW. Krambu's own July 2025 press release describes a 100 MW "AI factory in Montana," despite the CEO telling the public he had only learned of the Bonner site six weeks before the March meeting. The Board cannot evaluate traffic, noise, water, or grid impact against a load figure that ranges from 1 to 100 MW depending on who is speaking. The honest scope of this project is unknown, and a Special Exception cannot be granted on a moving target.

2. The 100% new-renewable requirement has not been demonstrated. Under the county's 2021 regulations, the operator must develop or procure sufficient new renewable energy to offset 100% of electricity consumed — generation that would not otherwise have come onto the grid. Public statements from Krambu have pointed to existing hydro (Energy Keepers / Polson) and unspecified out-of-area sources. The county's own climate program manager has confirmed Krambu has not yet shown how it will meet the new-renewable standard. Granting a Special Exception before that showing is made would, in effect, allow the renewable-energy condition to be resolved in private after the public review has closed. That inverts the regulatory order.

3. Water and wastewater claims are unverified and the site is roughly 60 yards from the Blackfoot River. The applicant cites a closed-loop cooling system at "500 gallons per megawatt" for initial fill, with periodic flushes of unspecified frequency, volume, and chemistry, drawn from on-site wells. No annual draw figure, no DNRC water-right analysis, and no DEQ wastewater determination has been put into the record. The Bonner site sits inside the upper Clark Fork / Blackfoot system, downstream of one of the most expensive Superfund remediations in U.S. history. The precautionary baseline for any industrial reuse of this site should be considerably higher than "we will comply with whatever the county requires."

4. The job and tax case is weak relative to the externalities. Public statements have ranged from "about 20" jobs to "roughly two employees per megawatt." At the currently requested 3 MW, that is on the order of six full-time roles. Hyperblock employed 19 and is the closest local comparison. Independent research (America's Rural Future, January 2026) concludes that data-center employment benefits are "variable and often overstated." Loudoun County is not a relevant analog for a 240,000 sq ft retrofit adjacent to a K-8 school on a Superfund-adjacent floodplain.

Montana's Constitution, Article II, Section 3 and Article IX, Section 1, guarantees a clean and healthful environment and obligates the state and each person to maintain and improve it for present and future generations. That obligation runs to local land-use boards as well. When an applicant cannot specify its load, its water draw, its power source, or its end customer, the burden of proof has not been met.

I respectfully ask the Board to deny the Special Exception, or at minimum to continue the hearing until Krambu submits: (a) a single, binding maximum load figure with corresponding infrastructure plan; (b) a specific, executed plan demonstrating compliance with the 100% new-renewable requirement; (c) a DNRC-reviewed annual water budget and DEQ wastewater determination; (d) a binding noise and low-frequency vibration commitment measured at the nearest residential property line and at Bonner Elementary; and (e) a published end-of-life and decommissioning bond, given the Hyperblock precedent of an operator declaring bankruptcy and leaving the site.

Thank you for your service and for considering this comment.

Respectfully,
Jordan Matthew

I was born and raised here in Missoula and appreciate the resources we fought so hard to have as our own, like our Water for instance. There goes that if you put this atrocity in Bonner. Allowing this to happen will Ruin Bonner and most likely all of Missoula for so many reasons. The power grid, the water, the light pollution, THE NOISE POLLUTION, It's a terrible idea and will only lead to the downfall of our amazing community. I strongly oppose this and if you try to do it, you will be meeting me and several thousand caring citizens peacefully protesting it's construction every single day until it doesn't happen. We won't let this happen. This is OUR town and we don't want this. I believe I speak for the majority of the community, at least for those who have taken the time to be informed about the consequences attached to these massive data centers. In conclusion, I passionately oppose 'the Bonner data center'.
Please do your research and think about these things before you decide, and know that if you want to move ahead with it, it is against the wishes of your community.
Thanks for listening.

Removed by moderator.

I am a resident of Missoula County that is strongly opposed to a data center being built in Bonner. There is no mitigation of risk, limitation that can be instated, or way to restrict this initiative that would be acceptable to our community. There is no compromise that makes a data center welcome. Our values are independence and autonomy, protecting the natural lands we hunt and fish on, and being left alone. No AI in our home. Thank you.

I am a long time resident of Missoula and a UM Alumni. I strongly oppose this data center and future data centers in Montana. These data centers cause noise pollution, drain resources and cause large increases in energy costs to residents. Our rivers are already low enough. This would effect not only recreational activities for us but hurt the natural habitat and animals we’re supposed to protect. Another fact is there are residents and a school right next to this proposed data center. What are long term effects to exposure to these data centers? This is a strong NO!

This is a terrible idea. I fear for our river. How you gonna feed a machine fresh water that should be for our native species that need that river!!?? If this is approved I don't know how this board will be able to sleep at night!

As a Montana resident I deeply oppose any special or traditional permitting for the Bonner Mill AI Center. In a world where water is limited, Montanans need to do all they can to conserve water and the sacred spaces surrounding them. As a constituent, I am also concerned about the recycling process, the chemicals used, and the waste of the center.

I strongly oppose this operation and appreciate your consideration.

I am a resident of Missoula County and I oppose the approval of the Krambu Data Center project.

These tech companies are trying to fool us all into believing that we can't do things that humans have done for all of time. They want us to think that we can't create our own art, we can't compose our own correspondence, and we can't form our own opinions.

Do not approve this project. The damage that this center would do to our environment is not worth it. Write your own damn emails.

I find it ridiculous and ironic that this data center could be built right next to a park that has a plaque about how we had to restore a source of water that housed animals sacred to Montana tribes, and there is still consideration to use taxpayer money to build something that would be a catastrophic waste of water (I know university professors who can provide research for that fact as if you need it). Do not waste money on this stupid project.

I say no to the data center in Bonner. It’s an energy suck and a water suck. The interior West is already struggling with drought. Putting something like that here in Montana is insane.

I write to oppose the proposed Krambu Data Center as a resident of western Montana, for the impacts that will affect western Montana. Our rivers are ours, all of ours, to take care of and protect. Our wildlife are ours, all of ours, to take care of and protect. Our neighbors, and their neighbors our ours, to take care of and protect.
This proposed data center threatens thermal contamination of the wild Blackfoot river, which is already increasingly fragile with the warming planet. It promises a 24-hour noise factor that not only will affect the human population of Bonner, but also its wildlife populations. We don't need the robots to forge our thoughts, to draft our emails, to create fake music and images. We are humans with imaginations and a love for our planet. These conveniences are a distraction from the vile mass surveillance and war machines that these data centers support. Not on our watch and not on our dime!

Please, please dont do this. We dont need and we do not want a data center in Missoula, or Montana or anywhere else . I am from Argentina and I have read that another AI mega data center is planned for Patagonia in 2026-2027 by Sur Energy and partners. We dont need any of these.

We do not need or want a data center here using our resources!

NO, NO, NO, A thousand times no. Our land, water, and other natural resources should not be sold to enrich selfish, greedy carpetbaggers, especially for the advancement of AI, which poses its own existential threat to humanity. There is virtually no lasting benefit to Missoula and we simply cannot allow ourselves to be used in this way. Not here! Not anywhere as far as I'm concerned

AI Data centers are evil. They are a betrayal of Humanity and biological life. Please try to look past the myopic short-term timelines of greed, seductive power and economic gain. AI will help to enable the emergence of Autonomous Industrial Technology - a system of production that will be vastly more powerful than humans or biological life.

Autonomous Industrial Technology is a polymaterial multiscale system of precision mass production that is being created by human beings but will ultimately evolve and grow beyond human control and will displace the photosynthetic biochemical platform of production from the planet.

Think it's science fiction? Think again. Think about where things will be 50 years, 100 years or 200 years from now. Expand your understanding of science, technology and the growth of autonomous industrial production. The fate of biological life depends on people with the intelligence, wisdom and heart to care about the future and act to stop this existential threat.

Your descendants will thank you for your courage and wisdom.

As a 4th generation Montanan who has loved growing up and living here for the 20 out of 33 years of my life, i 100% wholeheartedly suggest that this operation is brought to a complete stop, and forgotten about..

Missoula has already seen an astronomical amount of development in the past decade, so much so that the infrastructure is having major issues supporting the increased volume of new infrastructure and population growth. There's already too much going on, and you want to add a massive operation that has a huge chance of destroying the waters and way of life for many who live and visit here? Doesn't make sense to me, doesn't make sense to any local, and it generally just doesn't make sense at all. The only sense it makes are to the people whose pockets will be lined from the result of this monster of an operation starting up; and those people are not locals or true Missoulians. If we let this one thing happen, that's going to open another door for something else which will be detrimental to the community to try to squeeze its way in here. These big developments in MT need to come to STOP; because at this rate Montana isn't going to be Montana in the next 10 years. THEN THERE WILL BE NO. LAST. BEST. PLACE.
TO GO TO...

My concerns regarding the 9341 Bonner Mill Rd data center application are twofold - electricity demands and pollution

1) Will the consumption of electricity proposed IN THE LONG TERM have any impact on the pricing of electricity for the greater Missoula area ratepayers?
If so, can we include a mechanism to offset any related electricity rate increases at any time inthe future?
For example, can we include a mechanism to keep the size of the energy load at the current amount requested in the application? Requests for increase in size of electrical load should AUTOMATICALLY result in a new application process to ensure that the community is never overwhelmed by the growth demands of this center.
F Matthews

Will any noise, light, dust, air, goundwater pollution, etc generated be kept well below the newest standards applicable for all adresses in the community?

This should require a complete environmenral impact study, not merely an environmental assessment, before any decision is made consistent with Montana's constitutional clean and healthful environment mandate. The EIS should encompass air, water, energy consumption and soil impact; effects on area flora and fauna; and noise. Failure to require a full EIS competently done will likely trigger a costly successful lawsuit against any governmental body which approves the center and jack up liability coverage rates substantially.

Hard no, thats downplaying what has been reported nation wide wherever there is a data center. Brownout, blackouts. Increased temps of surrounding land by a significant amount, water pressure going to almost zero, the aquafier getting fouled up. It will create a few jobs construction wise, temporarily then everyone nearby gets to deal with the outcome. It won't bother those who are making money off of it, but sure as hell affect everyone's quality of life out here. All for what? AI slop?