Cloverleaf Infrastructure Data Center Project Faces Community Pushback in Lowndes County, Alabama

Cloverleaf Infrastructure's proposed hyperscale data center, Project Red Clay, planned for an 800-acre site at the intersection of Highway 80 and Route 21 in Lowndes County, Alabama, is encountering significant community resistance. The project, which would include four 720,000-square-foot buildings, a warehouse, and an office, is situated near a section of Highway 80 designated as a national historical trail, a route significant to the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches.

During a recent open house in Hayneville, Cloverleaf representatives, including Danielle Decatur, Vice President of Community Engagement and Communications, attempted to address community concerns but faced deep skepticism. Residents like Perman Hardy and Chequita Surles-Johnson highlighted the irony of a facility demanding 1,500 megawatts of energy and up to 100,000 gallons of water daily, when many in the impoverished Black Belt region of Lowndes County lack access to clean drinking water and proper sewage systems.

Ann Burgwin Faulkner, a lead organizer against the project, emphasized environmental and economic concerns, as well as the belief that the data center would tarnish the civil rights legacy of the area. Katanga Mants and Joann Mants, daughter and widow of civil rights activist Bob Mants, wrote to county commissioners, calling Lowndes County "sacred ground" and opposing its treatment as a "sacrifice zone." Despite Cloverleaf's commitment to use a closed-loop cooling system and assurances that public promises would be contractually binding with an eventual end-user, residents remain resolute in their opposition, stating, "We don't want it here."