Hello r/neoliberal.
Longtime fan. Relatively frequent commenter. DT regular.
I live in this town that you may have heard about in a recently viral Politico article. The town is called Fayetteville, Georgia. It's a nice, cozy little town south of Atlanta with a long history as a white flight community.
Fayetteville is divided in half by Stonewall Avenue, named after Stonewall Jackson. We have two Krogers. We have two McDonalds. We have two Chick Fil As. We have two Wendys. We only have one Burger King but nobody goes there.
I am from the North side of Fayetteville and grew up here. Residents on the South side refer to the North side as "Fayettedale" invoking the neighboring city of Riverdale, which Waka Flocka Flame is from.
The average house in Fayetteville costs $450,000, north or south.
The north side of Fayetteville is largely a professional commuter community in which a number of older, upper middle class black people who went to HBCUs and work as executives in Atlanta companies live.
The south side is largely populated by "Whitewater People," who are, generally speaking, Delta pilots and small/medium sized business owners. Your local "guy who owns a car dealership" and "guy who owns a residential plumbing company" tend to live there.
Whitewater High School is named after the Whitewater Creek community, which does not have a creek but does have a gated community, golf course, and country club called Whitewater Creek. They knew what they were doing when they named it that, and everyone here knows exactly why it is named that.
The south side is part of one congressional district along with several neighboring rural communities, our representative is Brian Jack, who is famous for never accomplishing anything of note and being a staunch Trump loyalist.
The north side is part of another district lumped in with several more urban communities such as College Park, Riverdale, and Jonesboro, our representative was, until very recently, David Scott, and will now likely be Jasmine Clark.
Fayetteville has been like this for a very, very long time. I have lived here since I was 11 in 2005. It was a suburban community then. My high school, Fayette County High School was reasonably subdivided about 40/40/10 demographically, with that 10% representing generally non-black POC. We outperformed, and in many cases still do, almost every other school in the district, such as Whitewater High School, and the cocaine schools in Peachtree City, which are a bit more homogenous.
It is, in general, a well-to-do suburban community that is de facto segregated. Generally speaking, there is not racial strife, there are simply many well-to-do black people who drive Cadillacs and Lexuses and blue collar adjacent white people who drive Ford Raptors and wear camo despite their being no woods for them to hunt in nearby. People mostly get along with one another here, though. For the most part, most of the time.
For the last decade or so, we have had a number of controversies, mostly revolving around us growing more and more Democratic. This is, in many ways, frustrating to those in Whitewater land.
In general, the language has been against "urbanization" and wears typical NIMBY clothes. We have, in recent years, legalized liquor stores, decriminalized marijuana, and allowed 3 or 4 apartment complexes to be built, as well as a large park and town center with a brewery and playground where I like to go with my young son. My house is walking distance to this, as is the town square. We have this thing called an "entertainment district" in which you can carry a beer from the brewery to another nearby brewery if you would like without getting beat up by the police. We have relatively frequent festivals and other sorts of events that make this place, objectively, a vibrant, fun, walkable community.
We also built a big movie studio, originally called Pinewood, now called Trilith. It's very cool, very expensive, lots of Marvel movies got made there until some political decisions were made a couple years ago that made a lot of Hollywood want to pull out.
It is, in general, much better than it was when I was a kid. My wife and I moved back here in 2021 after living in many other places like California, Colorado, Texas, and parts of Georgia that smell worse. We were not, at the time, certain what we were moving back to. In general, most of the people I went to school with who had options left, and many of those who remained unfortunately passed due to drug overdoses and such things. This was not, at the time, a walkable, vibrant community. It was a generic strip-mall suburb with a big shopping center that you had to drive to that had a Wal-Mart and a Target and a Dick's and a Home Depot.
It was mostly parking lots and beige buildings.
We have this local Facebook group known as "Living in Fabulous Fayetteville." I will not link it, as they will not admit you and you do not want to see it.
As an r/neoliberal regular, I used to do my due diligence there a lot arguing in favor of growth. Because growth is both objectively good and materially good for us.
In said group, there was a man named James Clifton.
He argued against apartments.
He argued against liquor stores.
He argued against parks.
He argued against townhomes.
About 4 years ago, the city gave a permit to this company called QTS. QTS wanted to build this thing called a "Data Center" which, I had been told, is what "The Cloud" exists in.
Clifton was not happy about this. In fact, he spent nearly every day arguing on Facebook about why this was bad. This was, in fact, AFTER we legalized liquor stores that were supposed to bring a ton of crime and didn't.
The data center was a thing. People had mixed opinions about it even then. Everyone was, in general, like "what the hell is this big ass thing they are building in this empty grassland across from the BP that used to be some farm 30 years ago?" and people would say "a data center" and they would say "what is that?" and people would say "a place where IT people work" and people would say "it's ugly." and that was basically that.
It's been under construction for some time. It makes driving to the gym in Peachtree City kind of difficult at 5PM, because that's when all the construction workers are leaving. The police generally pull out and block the road for 15 minutes while the construction workers leave. I don't know why, but it is annoying.
Now. Around 2023 this thing called "AI" started to be important. And everyone decided that the AI lived in these data centers, and the public opinion started shifting. There started to be questions about power and water and all of these other things that no one had been concerned about before, but all of a sudden the zeitgeist shifted and now we suddenly hate the data center.
And, to be fair, having been on 54 at 5PM trying to get to the gym before everyone else, that was kind of understandable.
Now, to my sudden surprise, I was browsing Reddit the other day and I saw something from Politico about Fayetteville.
Politico? I usually like that site. Wonder what this is?
The neighbors of a data center in Georgia are steaming after they discovered the facility had sucked up nearly 30 million gallons of water — without initially paying for it.
The data center did what? I read incredulously. Wait a second.
“We get this notification from Fayette County water system saying you need to stop watering your lawns to help conserve water,” said James Clifton, an attorney and property rights advocate who obtained and shared the 2025 letter to QTS.
Oh.
Oh.
I turned on my critical eye.
The company, which is owned by the private equity firm Blackstone, touts a “closed‑loop” cooling system, which it says does not consume water for cooling. Like a laptop or cellphone, the chips housed in data centers can easily overheat — generally requiring a lot of water to cool them.
Wait, what is the author doing there? That's editorializing in that last sentence.
The company said its water consumption was so high last year because of temporary construction-related activities, such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation.
Seems legit. I've done concrete before.
Once operational, the company said the data centers only will use water for domestic needs, such as bathrooms and kitchens. That will total the equivalent of what four U.S. households use per month, the spokesperson said.
That may not happen for another few years, however. The company is still actively building and expanding its Fayetteville data center campus. It aims to finish in three to five years.
Tigert, who sent the 2025 letter to QTS, said the utility didn’t know about the water hookups because the connection process “got mixed up” as the county transitioned to a cloud-based system while also trying to accommodate an industrial customer. Tigert also said her staff is small and at capacity.
“Just like any water system, we don’t have enough staff. We can’t keep staff,” she said. “I’ve got one person that’s doing inspections and plan review, and so he’s spread pretty thin.”
She said it’s possible her staff did know about hookups but that she hadn’t been able to locate the inspection report. “I may have hit ‘send’ too soon,” she said about the 2025 letter to QTS.
Wait they just say that in the article? Seems like nothing.
Georgia is home to more than 200 data center facilities and their thirst for water is turning into a political flashpoint. The entire state is experiencing moderate to high levels of drought, and Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency last month in response to one of Georgia’s worst wildfire outbreaks in years.
Wait they're blaming the fires 200 miles south of us on…
Wait what does that caption on the image say?
The Atlanta skyline looms over a field of dry grass during a 2019 drought. Georgia is dealing with similar conditions this year. | David Goldman/AP
That's not my grass? I have Emerald fucking Zoysia and it's green as shit. You can't see the skyline from Fayetteville. I don't see that until I start hitting the traffic near Langford….
What the fuck is this article? Who is this journalist?
Arianna has covered the intersection of energy, environment and policy for close to a decade. Before anchoring Power Switch, she covered climate and transportation and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Arianna holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Oh. She's not from here. She don't know about ol' James Clifton.
So here's what actually happened.
The local news released the county's statement a couple days ago.
We want to share the facts and correct some misinformation about the QTS Fayetteville Data Center campus project.
Our letter on May 15, 2025, was unclear, which caused misunderstandings about how much water QTS is allowed to use and expectations for the project. The purpose of the letter was to explain the construction activities, administrative billing issues, and the higher construction water rate.
The Fayette County Water System started upgrading all 33,000 customer meters to smart meters, known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), to improve meter reading accuracy, detect leaks, and enhance customer service. While switching to the new system, it was discovered that some meters were still connected to the old system and not linked to the new digital system for billing or usage tracking. Once this problem was found, QTS and Fayette County Water quickly worked together to resolve the billing and meter tracking issues. QTS was immediately billed at the $6.46/per 1,000 gallons construction rate, which is double the normal retail rate for past water use, and QTS promptly paid this bill.
Now, all meters are fully connected to the new system, ensuring accurate tracking and billing of water use as part of our regular processes.
QTS’s water usage is typical for a project of this size. Over the past year, QTS monthly usage is less than 1% of Fayette County Water’s current production and permitted capacity. Fayette County Water is allowed to produce 22,800,000 gallons per day and currently produces about 17,300,000 gallons per day.
This project does not affect residential water pressure, and there are no wells in the Fayette County Water System.
We understand that water is a valuable community resource. To ensure responsible use and maintain open communication, our teams meet monthly. These meetings help us stay coordinated, address concerns quickly, and work together for sustainable water management.
A plumbing contractor installed two water connections at the QTS construction site. One of them didn't get a meter on it. Fayette County was simultaneously migrating all 33,000 of its customer meters to a new smart meter system with a small, understaffed department. The connection fell through the gap. Nobody noticed for somewhere between four and fifteen months depending on who you ask.
When they did notice, a county employee sent QTS an email. QTS said "oh damn" and cut a check for $147,000. The county confirmed QTS paid double the normal rate for the unmetered water. All meters are now fully integrated. QTS's total usage over the past year is less than 1% of Fayette County Water's daily permitted capacity. The county confirmed this project has no effect on residential water pressure.
That's the story. A contractor forgot a meter. An awkward email was sent. A check was cut. Everybody updated their systems and moved on.
Clifton found the billing letter through a public records request and posted it to Facebook during his campaign for county commissioner. A Politico journalist found Clifton, called him a "local attorney and property rights advocate," quoted a UCLA researcher who studies data center water consumption and needs these stories to be meaningful, used a seven-year-old AP drought photo of Atlanta as the thumbnail — a skyline, for the record, that is not visible from Fayetteville — and wrote a piece about corporate water theft during a drought.
696 upvotes on r/Georgia.
Now go look at his campaign website.
James Clifton is against data centers.
He is against apartments.
He is against MARTA, which he says would import crime.
He wants to collaborate with ICE.
He wants one unit per two to five acres. He is against the road extension that would connect Fayette County to Coweta County because it would bring in outsiders.
He is for "preserving Fayette County's suburban character."
He just won his Republican primary for Fayette County Board of Commissioners.
Politico called him a property rights advocate.
I took a shower this morning. I watered my Emerald Zoysia this afternoon. The pressure was fine.
We're about to elect this idiot to the Board of Commissioners and reddit won't get my city's name out its god damn mouth.
Posted by Average_Tired_Dad