TeraWulf project manager Pace Relli addresses citizens at a Boyd County town hall meeting. (Photo by Charles Romans, Carter County Times)
By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Technology company TeraWulf hosted a job fair on Tuesday, June 16, and a town hall style meeting at Boyd County High School on Wednesday, June 17. The town hall meeting allowed local residents to voice their concerns and ask questions from the company’s representatives, however acoustics in the room left much to be desired, impacting the ability of those present to clearly understand questions and responses. Community interest and concerns revolved around the company’s new data center which is scheduled to be built in East Park. Among the many concerns, the most prevalent were impacts to the local ecology, how the new data center’s electrical demands might impact supply and/or the price of electricity for current residents, and how many jobs would be created both during the construction phase and after construction was completed.
Area residents weighed these concerns against the potential benefits of the new data center, including the influx of a large number of construction jobs expected to last approximately two years, with some of those jobs converting to onsite maintenance and other positions. Proponents of the data center also pointed out the creation of many new, higher income permanent jobs and an increase to the tax base.
Those who attended the town hall meeting were vocal about their concerns following the presentation from TeraWulf representatives. Pace Relli, Vice President of Project Development with TeraWulf, began the presentation saying the company wanted to provide the community with the information they had and answer any questions. Relli introduced the other members of TeraWulf’s panel to the crowd, but added, “I’ll probably be the face you see around town as we get this project off the ground.”
James Kacergis, Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development, told those gathered that he had been with the company for several years and was excited to be part of the project. Michael Enright, TeraWulf Senior Vice President, said he had been with the company 17 years, and before that had spent over twenty years in state and local government in his home state of Maryland. Enright said one of the things he found interesting about the company was their community involvement.
Katelyn Doyle, Head of Recruitment, Development, and Engagement for TeraWulf, said that part of her job with the company was reaching out to the community at events such as the town hall meeting.
“We are all looking forward to answering your questions and providing some more information,” Doyle said.
She also told the crowd she was happy to see some familiar faces she had met at the company job fair held the previous day.
During the presentation, the TeraWulf team gave the crowd some background on the company and touched on company goals as well. Kacergis explained that the company was initially in the Bitcoin mining business in 2021.
“A couple of years later, with the rise of Open AI and some of these other applications, there became a much larger need for infrastructure to support data center activity,” Kacergis said. “So, we shifted our focus and today we are exclusively focused on serving these data center loads.”
The presentation began at 6 pm and lasted until 8 pm, with a Q&A following. During the presentation, company representatives addressed the power requirements of the data center, and assured the crowd that the Muskie Data Campus would not affect other customer’s rates for electricity. In fact, they claimed there was a possibility that it might lower those rates in some cases. They also addressed water requirements and noise levels expected to be generated by the new data center.
Local resident Briny King began her questions by stating she was really happy to hear about TeraWulf’s commitment to the community, specifically about their stated commitment to being good neighbors.
“I’m here because we are literally your neighbors,” King said.
Her residence, she said, will be the closest residence to the new business, sharing a property line on at least two sides.
“My initial question is if you plan to put fencing and additional foliage around your facility perimeter,” King asked. “And my second question is are you going to do annual soil and water testing?”
King also said that it looked as though one of the company’s project buildings would be built over an existing drainage pond, causing the water to flow over her husband’s family homestead that had been in his family “since the deed books were written.”
In answer to King’s questions, Relli said that part of his job was to make the initial layout of a project, often before he ever sees the location physically.
“This is a reference,” Relli told King. “We have not started our survey work, so all the topographical and geotech and wetlands is actually performed by our third-party partner. They have not started that yet, and we are just getting to know the property. I expect we’ll be talking feedback from important parties like yourself. And I expect we will be changing the design when that survey and geotech comes in.”
Local biology professor Allorah Henson began her questions by saying that many of the questions that had been asked in a previous meeting with county officials had been deferred to TeraWulf. Henson asked if there were any county officials that would like to join in the Q&A process, but was reminded by Enright that the current meeting was intended for TeraWulf to address the public directly, and that county officials held regular meetings where the public could address their concerns directly to them. Henson then asked the TeraWulf representatives for the projected first day of construction on the project.
“There isn’t an exact first day of construction,” Kacergis answered. “These projects typically take 12 to 18 months for construction, with the first power becoming available around the fall of 2028. And if you backtrack from there 18 months, that’s a good indicator of when the construction will begin. Around that same time or slightly before then, is when we will announce who the end user for the site would be.”
When asked if the company had secured any county or state permits, Relli answered by stating that all of the surveys including geotech and wetlands would need to be completed before the permit process began.
“There is a bunch of learning we have to do,” Relli said. “Then we take that information and decide what is the best way we can build with that information.”
At that point, Relli said, the permitting process will begin.
“We will follow whatever the permitting process requires, which is a public process,” Enright added. “I can’t speak to how they are released, but permits are public,” he told the crowd.
“One of the things I would like to mention is that this is not the only public meeting,” Relli said of the flow of information and how the public can stay informed.
“This is the first,” he said, and said it will set the pace for future meetings.
“We are going to do sort of a quarterly check-in,” he said. “And that would be one of the updates I would want to bring to the community. This is where we are on the surveys and we can present whatever the permit allows us to present publicly. And we will talk about the updates as we go.”
“I think that would be something that we would love to share with the community,” he said.
Town hall meetings such as the one held on June 17 are open to the public, and everyone interested in the project should try to attend. The first meeting can be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/live/OHFoFswpvDE.
Further information on the planned data center is also available through the TeraWulf website at https://www.muskiedatacampus.com/.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
