Stop Project Sail
About Stop Project Sail
Our Mission
Stop Project Sail's goal is to keep you informed about the massive data center being proposed for the rural, western area of Coweta County and to inform you of how destructive this project will be for the entire county.
According to a resource from October 2024, if approved, the Project Sail data center will be in the top 4 largest data centers on the planet in terms of square footage.
Coweta County does not have the infrastructure to support a project of this magnitude, and it will put a strain on the entire county's resources.
Please contact your Coweta County Commissioner and tell them to vote NO!
Citizens for Rural Coweta
What is Project Sail?
Project Sail is a proposed data center in northwest Coweta County. When completed, it will be one of the biggest data centers in Georgia.
The campus will encompass 831 acres with 13 large data center warehouses. Each building will measure 378,000 square feet, totaling more than 4.9 million square feet- larger than the Mall of Georgia. The proposed data center will sit between Wagers Mill Road and Welcome to Sargent Road in a rural residential part of Coweta. This area is currently zoned Rural Conservation. Atlas Development LLC, the company behind the project, has requested this property be re-zoned to Light Industrial to accommodate the project.
WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS TO OUR COMMUNITY?
nATURAL LANDSCAPE
Western Coweta is one of the last rural areas in our county.
Project Sail will destroy 831 acres of this rural area by removing forestland in order to build 13 massive warehouses. This will have detrimental effects to wildlife in the area and forever change the landscape of this region.
If a project of this magnitude is approved, then more projects can be approved in ANY area of our county, removing all the rural, natural areas we have left.
Picture Coweta in 10 years, do you want to see a county full of massive warehouses or do you want to see rural areas and greenspace?
Construction Concerns
The are two planned entrances to Project Sail, one entrance on Wagers Mill Road and another entrance on Welcome to Sargent Road. Both roads are two lanes roads that will become damaged with large trucks coming and going at all hours. The additional construction traffic will be dangerous on the small roads, especially during school pickup and drop off when many school buses are on the roads, and at the intersections are HWY 16/27.
Power Resources
Project Sail will strain our power grid.
According to the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, the entire Project Sail campus will demand a huge amount of power, 936 megawatts at peak production. In comparison, Plant Yates produces approximately 800 megawatts.
For this project to continue, major upgrades must be completed to provide enough power to run the data center and computers. The cost of the updates will ultimately be passed along to the taxpayers of Coweta County.
water Resources
Groundwater Concerns
This facility will be impacting the Wahoo Creek watershed and the wetlands surrounding it. Large, land-disturbing projects can cause erosion and increased flooding downstream. Another concern is ground water contamination, as many local residents rely on wells for their household's water. Sedimentation and pollutants can easily impact and percolate through our groundwater system.
Data Center Water Usage
At peak operation, this data center will use 9 million gallons of water per day.
Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority is currently building a pumping station on the Chattahoochee River, about 2.5 miles from the data center location. The pumping station will provide water for the center.
The center will consume 6 million gallons that will be evaporated via cooling towers and not returned to the Chattahoochee River. This amount of water not being returned to the river can cause issues with the river and reservoirs downstream.
The remaining 3 million gallons of water will be returned to the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority system.
noise pollution
Data Centers can emit up to 90dB of noise pollution. Due to the close proximity to homes (100-250 ft), nearby residents will hear a constant 60-90dB of noise, the equivalent of a generator or chainsaw. Constant noise can cause negative health on our residents and animals as well.
Noise from the data center will be heard up to 2.2 miles away. The Zone of Audibility Map shows all homes within this 2.2 mile radius, with these homes experiencing a constant 30 dB.
Traditional noise barriers, similar to walls along the interstate, do not work to dissipate the sounds emanated by data centers. Interstates produce mid to low frequency sounds, which are easily absorbed by traditional walls.
Data Centers produce high frequency noises which bypass these types of walls.
Additionally, traditional noise barriers or walls are ineffective in areas with complex topography, such as this site with differing elevations. Sounds can easily diffract or go around barriers that are not in the direct line-of-sight.
TAX REVENUE
Atlas Development submitted a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) filing to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs on 12/31/24.
The project's construction cost is estimated at $17 billion, with a projected tax revenue of $1.6 billion.
On 1/8/25, the projected tax revenue was updated to $163 million.
As reported by the Newnan Times-Herald, the original number was entered incorrectly.
The projected tax revenue is not all property tax revenue. According to Coweta County Tax Commissioner Justin McMichael, "The DRI estimate could be factoring in sales tax for materials, income tax for jobs". Therefore, the entire tax revenue may not come back to Coweta County. Also, we have the added expenses of infrastructure improvements, expansion of Plant Yates and the new water pumping station, which will be paid for with tax dollars.
How can i make a difference?
Contact your county local commissioner with your concerns and ask them to vote NO!
To find your commissioner, click here.
Join STOP Project Sail Newnan Data Center
Sign petition here.
Additional information, please see our resources page.