Kankakee County to register concerns with Indiana about use of river water to cool proposed data center
Kankakee County officials plan to send Indiana authorities a letter opposing or raising concerns about a proposed Amazon data center in Wheatfield Township, citing potential effects on the Kankakee River. The $7 billion project could discharge combined wastewater into the river, prompting Illinois officials to seek environmental review before an October 22 public-comment deadline.
Kankakee County officials are preparing to register concerns with Indiana authorities about a proposed $7 billion Amazon data center in Wheatfield Township. The nine-building, 304-acre development could combine wastewater from an existing coal plant, a planned natural-gas power plant and the data center in a settling basin before discharging it into the Kankakee River, which supplies drinking water to much of Kankakee County.
County Board members said they were not adequately informed about the project and plan to communicate with Indiana officials ahead of an Oct. 22 public-comment deadline set by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Illinois state Sen. Patrick Joyce has separately asked the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to review potential environmental consequences and available safeguards. Amazon says the facilities would rely on outdoor-air cooling about 98% of the year, limiting evaporative cooling, although a single data center can have the capacity to use more than 3 million gallons of water daily.