(File Photo) Washington County Commissioners Charlie Schilling, middle, and Greg Nohe, right, review the list of bills during the meeting Thursday.

The Washington County Commission approved a letter of intent and NDA (non-disclosure agreement) Thursday to enter into conversations with potential developers for a data center that’s proposed to be in Waterford.

Commissioner Charlie Schilling read the letter of intent into the record which stated their support for the potential developer as well as a 100% tax abatement for a minimum of 15 years.

“This is just one step in the process along with the NDA that has to be procured before we look at projects coming into our county of this nature or that are this substantial,” said Schilling.

The commissioners had postponed the letter of intent for a week to allow for public discussion.

The commissioners said this is the largest thing that could happen in the county over the past 50 years and they are sorting through all of the concerns from the public as well as the information from the developers of the data center.

“This is very, very substantial to economic development and we want to make sure that Washington County is the first and foremost in leading that economic development for this county,” said Commissioner Greg Nohe. “We’re going to take every one of your concerns and we’re going to analyze that because those concerns are the concerns of us, too.”

The commissioners opened the floor for public discussion on the subject which was met with an array of displeasure about the data center itself, tax abatement, and the NDA. Members from Washington County for Safe Drinking Water were present to express their concerns about this process.

The commissioners said they didn’t know yet how many jobs the data center would provide. Commissioner Eddie Place addressed a few questions from the public about how much water the data center would need.

“This is mostly a closed-loop system so they would fill it one time and they can fill it from the water department,” he said. “It’s the newest of the newest systems.”

According to the Environmental Energy Study Institute, some “medium-sized data centers can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling purposes.”

Place said the Tri-County Rural Water and Sewer District will determine if they have the infrastructure and if not, the data center developers would offer assistance.

“The technology these places are developing is increasing every day. The information that most people are getting from outside sources is from the old data centers that were built previously,” said Nohe.

Marietta resident Dawn Hewitt asked why an NDA would benefit the people of the county. A few members of the public urged the commissioners to be more transparent if this process were to continue.

“This is a very standard procedure because it’s preliminary,” said Washington County Prosecutor Nicole Coil. “If this was a finalized project then you are certainly entitled to that type of information but because there is proprietary, confidential type information … it’s preliminary and they may not agree to go forward with anything.”

Coil said the developers and the commissioners had the right to protect their preliminary conversations during this phase because they might not move forward with the project. Coil said this allows for both parties to feel “comfortable” during the negotiation process.

“I think you guys have a responsibility as public representatives to be open and honest with the public and the people you’re representing and signing an NDA is very disheartening to a lot of people,” said Marietta resident Jessica Archer.

Archer said she also disagreed with offering the developer tax abatement because if the company has billions of dollars to spend “then we should be getting as much benefit from this California, silicon valley money as possible.”

The members of the public said they felt as if this was cutting the public out of the process.

Nohe said this isn’t cutting the public out but it’s only the first step in a multi-step process and they haven’t finalized or decided on anything.

“Citizens who live in these communities have a right to be included in decisions made that affect them, they have a right to be involved in whether they want injection wells near their water sources and they have a right to determine whether they want 2,000 acres of their land to be bought and used for data centers,” said Marietta resident Dee Arnold.

Arnold said the data center is going to impact the residents due to the noise and the size of the facility.

The commissioners said they are trying to make change happen for the benefit of economic development in the county.

“This is not a smiling matter, this is serious and we take your guys’ concerns and we get answers but you guys are wanting to turn down everything that’s going on,” said Place. “Everything that’s going on week after week, how bad everything is around here and it’s doom and gloom.”

When addressing the concerns about the brine from the injection wells, Place asked members of the Washington County for Safe Drinking Water to show him where the radioactive water was that they say is coming from the injection wells.

“We don’t regulate that, you guys are barking up the wrong tree,” said Place. “We try to protect you guys and we try to bring infrastructure and economic development. That’s our job as county commissioners … we can agree with you all day long but we can’t change those laws.”

Place said in order for the conversation to happen with the developers, they have to enter an NDA.

“Okay, so we just trust you, we trust the government, right? Got it,” said Arnold.

The meeting concluded with Coil stating there will be a phase in this process where the public can get involved and express all of their questions and concerns. She said the NDA is preliminary and allows both parties to enter into a protected conversation.