The impact study Fort Wayne 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.
Live Project Zodiac · Hatchworks LLC (Project Zodiac) — 'a stationary data center'
7 of 15 chapters on the record · 4 partial · 4 gaps named
Fort Wayne is this network’s first out-of-state watershed point — Allen County, Indiana, not Lima’s Allen County, Ohio — and its first confirmed, operational campus. That makes it the clean comparison case: the same load-not-jobs subsidy shape, in a second jurisdiction, assembled entirely from primary records.
A ~858-acre, $2 billion campus, locally codenamed Project Zodiac, is operating in southeast Fort Wayne. The land was bought by a Delaware shell, Hatchworks LLC, for an operator the local filings worked to keep at arm’s length: Google. Three records carry most of this study — a recorded deed chain, an IDEM Title V air permit, and a contested §401 water-quality certification.
The asymmetry between them is the finding. The air side is instrument-grade: a Title V permit, 34 gensets, an issued certification fought over in public. The water side is nearly empty — no cooling method disclosed, no water-balance scenario computable, no discharge characterization filed. A campus can reach its operating permit with its entire water account off the record.
Every figure here is read from a cited record and tagged for confidence: [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 the record is silent this
study leaves it silent and names the ask — the opacity is the finding, not a gap to paper over.
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. On the record
- 03 Land assembly & the deal How the land was put together, by whom, and what the paper trail says about when. the record carries no conveyance instrument — the land history has not been produced for this site Partial
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. a disclosed cooling method and a metered or contracted water quantity; neither is on the record here. Gap
- 05 The discharge & the receiving water Dilution at the design low flows, and the burden the receiving water already carries. baseline context only — the project-side record has not been produced Partial
- 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. On the record
- 08 Stormwater & the built surface The runoff a campus-scale impervious surface adds to the design storm. On the record
- 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. On the record
- 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. the record carries no legislative instrument and no minutes — the decision path has not been produced for this site Partial
- 14 The public balance What the community gives against what it is documented to get — a verdict over the chapters. synthesizes the screened chapters — 4 on the record, 1 partial, 3 gap Partial
What's missing
Every gap this study names, as one inventory — each with the record that would close it.