The impact study Bowling Green · Middleton Twp never received
The environmental and economic study that should precede any abatement or rezoning — assembled from the public record. Where the record is silent, the silence is the finding.
Confirmed Bowling Green Data Center (Project Accordion) · Meta Platforms; land/nominee entity Liames, LLC
7 of 15 chapters on the record · 3 partial · 5 gaps named
Bowling Green is where this network’s usual reading order breaks. At most sites the land record comes first and the public decision follows it. Here the end use was on the record nineteen months before the operator’s name was — a county resolution in September 2023 recites that “Liames LLC plans to construct one or more data center buildings,” and Meta’s name became public in 2025.
That inversion is why two of this study’s chapters carry most of its weight. The land assembly is a compiled county register, not a stack of deeds, so it can say who owns and cannot say who sold. The governance record is a roll call that every published account reports backwards: a 2–1 in favour that the minutes record as 1–2 against a motion to adopt a denial, with the reported dissenter the only trustee voting yes. Same outcome, inverted record.
The power side is a behind-the-meter gas plant certified with no adjudicatory hearing, and barred by its own certificate from the grid it sits beside. The water side is a twelve-fold conflict between two published figures that neither the withdrawal register nor the discharge permit can settle, because both instruments are structurally blind to a campus buying finished municipal water.
Every figure here is read from a cited record and tagged: [verified] when a document states it,
[inference] when it is derived and the assumption is shown, [reference] for secondary context,
[open] when the record does not say. Where an access failure blocked a record — the Power Siting
Board’s docket, the Secretary of State’s business search — that is written down as a fact about a
server, and nothing is inferred from it.
Evidence tags
- [verified]
- Read from a cited record or a live source — confirmed and reproducible.
- [inference]
- A labelled reading or derivation from cited inputs — reasoning, not a record.
- [reference]
- An outside published specification or dataset — authoritative, but not a record about this site.
- [open]
- Withheld, unresolved, or not yet checked — a question, not a verdict.
Every figure in this study wears one of these tags. A chapter's verdict — On the record · Partial · Gap · Watch — measures the record, never the project's press.
The project
What this study is, how it reads evidence, and the project on the record.
- 01 Scope & method What a real impact study is, who normally commissions one, and how this one reads evidence. On the record
- 02 The project on the record Operator, lifecycle, load, cooling, and footprint — every undisclosed field a named blank. the IT load on the record is a screening bracket, not an instrument-grounded figure Partial
- 03 Land assembly & the deal How the land was put together, by whom, and what the paper trail says about when. On the record
The environment
Water, heat, groundwater, runoff, and air — each screened where the record allows.
- 04 Water supply & consumptive use How much water the project consumes, against the receiving water's own cited low flows. On the record
- 05 The discharge & the receiving water Dilution at the design low flows, and the burden the receiving water already carries. On the record
- 06 Heat The discharge's heat against the reach's temperature criterion at design low flow. a thermal characterization for this project — none exists on the record. Gap
- 07 Groundwater & dewatering The wells within reach of the site's pumping, and where the pumped water went. a well survey and any dewatering record — neither has been produced. Gap
- 08 Stormwater & the built surface The runoff a campus-scale impervious surface adds to the design storm. the site grading and drainage plan — requested, not produced. Gap
- 09 Air The dispersion footprint of the campus's permitted generator fleet. an air-permit application for this project — none is on the record. Gap
The economy
The labor baseline, the grid and its ratepayers, the fiscal trade, and the balance.
- 10 Labor & the local baseline What this economy is before the project — the denominator every jobs claim divides by. On the record
- 11 Power & ratepayers Whose grid this load lands on, and what it does to the households on the same wires. the campus load is a screening bracket — the demand-pressure read is withheld until an instrument grounds it Partial
- 12 The fiscal trade What tax revenue is being traded away, for how long, and what the paper trail says. no fiscal accounting and no incentive instrument is on the record Gap
- 13 Governance & the local record The ordinances, resolutions, votes, and minutes that approved — or refused — the project. On the record
- 14 The public balance What the community gives against what it is documented to get — a verdict over the chapters. synthesizes the screened chapters — 3 on the record, 1 partial, 4 gap Partial
What's missing
Every gap this study names, as one inventory — each with the record that would close it.