Regional Industry & News

After Ida County, PathOne holds data center meeting for Hull residents

HULL, Iowa (KTIV) - Another northwest Iowa county is being looked at by a company hoping to build a data center.

Monday, Aug. 25th, PathOne held an informational meeting, in Hull, in spite of a data center moratorium Sioux County supervisors put in place earlier this summer. Like Ida County on Aug. 24, PathOne Data Centers are still looking to talk to members of the community in Hull about future development.

At the start of the meeting, PathOne described the sizes of different data centers specifically the size of their proposed project compared to hyper-scaled data centers.

They proposed a 40,000 square foot, 10 mega-watt facility, which would use between 340.000 700,000 gallons of water a year. The noise from the facility would amount to 65 decibels. The public then had the chance to ask questions, which covered the impact of air pollution, EMF studies, employment and building security.

PathOne also said it would build the facility, and then rent out the space for businesses to use.

“Based on the size of the data centers that you are proposing to build, like how large of a business could you service?” asked Jessica Regnerus.

“Regional banks, regional hospital systems, there’s almost, there is no answer to the small side of that question. I think the industry is just going to tell us that the, you know, those big, try not to use company names, but all those big tech companies we all know about, they’re not going to be interested in this,” said Kevin Donnelly with PathOne.

PathOne said, right now it’s only aware of one piece of land that they would potentially build on.

Many residents also asked what would be the benefit for Sioux County? Shane Walter, Sioux County’s planning and zoning director, shared what they have planned for the upcoming data center ordinance.

“Built into the ordinance will be a requirement that there is an economic benefit agreement entered into between the county and this company or any company coming in to build a data center,“ said Walter.

If you missed Tuesday’s meeting and would like to watch it, follow this link for the stream on YouTube.

Recommendations for ordinance

PathOne representatives also gave suggestions for rules they believe should be written into a Sioux County data center ordinance:

- All construction and operations must receive county approval, no self-directed activity.

- Strict noise control with reinforced sound barriers required, not optional.

- Closed-loop water systems required to protect farmland and water supply.

- Developers must pay for any infrastructure damage, including roads.

- No local tax abatements: developers pay full property taxes.

- Community input through an advisory council open to all residents, including skeptics.

Want to get the latest news and weather from Siouxland’s News Source? Follow these links to download our KTIV News app and our First Alert Weather app.