“If you’re seeing your constituents that are upset about it consistently, I think that listening to them instead of saying ‘Well we know best’ is a better option,” – Mackenzie Roberts
OKMULGEE – The atmosphere at the Okmulgee County United Against Data Centers’ Moratorium/City Ordinance Petition Kick Off held on Monday, Aug. 10, at the College of the Muscogee Nation STEM Building was deferential. Activists from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and Honor the Earth shared information about data centers and their efforts to stop their development. The meeting’s main topic of discussion was the Fluidstack data center, currently planned for development near the Deep Fork Wildlife Refuge.
Fluidstack is a data center developer headquartered in New York. Its proposed data center will be located outside the city limits of Okmulgee. According to Fluidstack’s website, the first phase of their planned data center will be operational by September 2027.
Alliance for Communities, Environments and Ecosystems (ACEE) activist Tamra Day is one of the key opponents of data center development in Okmulgee County. Day filed the Okmulgee County petition for a data center development moratorium. Her primary concern about development is its effect on the water supply and on endangered species that live along waterways.
The goal for the petition is to acquire 2,300 signatures from Okmulgee County residents. Day has discussed the data center with fellow Okmulgee County residents.
“I think the majority are just upset and frustrated because they weren’t given the information before. People weren’t being transparent. We are now finding out this could have gone back to 2021 and 2022 as far as city officials knowing,” Day said.
Mvskoke citizens speak out
Mackenzie Roberts (Mvskoke) is a Yardeka resident who works in Okmulgee. Roberts is an activist for Stop Data Colonialism, a national Indigenous coalition with Honor the Earth. Like Day, her concerns about the data center focus on the potential effects on local wildlife and agricultural producers.
Another concern Roberts has with the Fluidstack data center is the lack of transparency by the City of Okmulgee and Okmulgee County during the development process. She said some Okmulgee County residents were not aware of the data center’s development until a few months ago. Roberts said the conversations she has had with community members have gotten emotional, with some involving yelling and others crying.
According to an article published on Friday, July 10, by the Yale School of the Environment, data centers create heat pollution. Heat generated by data centers can contribute to the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon in which urban areas experience higher temperatures than rural areas. Heat pollution is also on Roberts’ mind.
“I’m a Muscogee citizen. There’s a lot of things that we do during the summer. There’s a lot of agricultural producers that are Muscogee citizens. There’s revivals, sometimes funerals at these churches,” Roberts said. “The reason I am saying all of these things is that there is a six mile radius of heat pollution (from data centers) that raises the local environment up of about 10 degrees or so.”
Gano Perez (Mvskoke) attended the meeting and signed the petition. Perez has been following this issue since the first Okmulgee data center meeting was organized. He remarked that there is always something to learn from these meetings, and they are useful for keeping residents informed about Freedom of Information Act requests and petition filings. Perez believes the plans for the data center are moving at an alarmingly fast pace.
“It’s like the wild west. There’s no rules on this right now because it’s happening so fast,” Perez said. “All the parts are moving real quick and nobody knows the outcomes of the bad stuff that could happen from this environmentally.”
Some Oklahoma Tribes have taken action against data center development. The Cherokee Nation issued a ban on data centers on Wednesday, Aug. 5. The ban states that data centers are not permitted to be developed on Tribally-owned and trust lands within the Cherokee Nation Reservation. According to the statement issued by Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, the Cherokee Nation is concerned with the effects data centers could have on natural resources.
“The Cherokee Nation will not consider supporting any hyperscale data center development on non-tribally owned lands within the Cherokee Nation Reservation unless robust consultation is conducted with the tribe. Such consultation must address cultural and natural resource concerns and include meaningful community engagement throughout the project lifecycle,” Chief Hoskin said.
The Seminole Nation unanimously voted to pass a moratorium on data center development at a Quarterly Council Meeting on Saturday, March 7.
MCN is currently reviewing the future of data center infrastructure on the reservation. During the July 25 Quarterly Session, the National Council adopted TR 26-045, a resolution that established the Tribal Digital Infrastructure and Data Sovereignty Task Force. According to the legislation, its mandate is to “study, evaluate, coordinate, and provide recommendations concerning tribal digital infrastructure planning and standards, and to promote data sovereignty.”
Perez noted that he hopes everyone will come into this issue informed.
“I hope everybody can come into this with an open mind and not jump to conclusions,” Perez said. “Take the concrete data that both sides have and decide for yourself what’s the best for the Nation.”
A public community meeting regarding data centers in Muskogee is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m. It will take place at 300 W. Martin Luther King Jr. St.
The full meeting on the Okmulgee County data center can be viewed on Facebook and accessed here.
