FW: LaGrange Daily News: Hogansville residents hear from data center experts Sharma and Manganiello
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From: Mark Woodall <woodal...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2025 11:37
Subject: LaGrange Daily News: Hogansville residents hear from data center experts Sharma and Manganiello
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December 9, 2025
Hogansville residents hear from data center experts
Hogansville residents learned about potential impacts of data centers, including strains on water, power, and local resources, as experts and officials discussed regulations, transparency, and community action.
THE EXPERTS: Science for Georgia’s Dr. Amy Sharma and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Dr. Chris Manganiello spoke to Hogansville residents on Saturday about some of the issues with data centers and how they can be regulated.Hannah Barron | Daily News
GIVING INFORMATION: Hogansville Post 4 Council Member Mark Ayers answered some questions for the crowd on Saturday who attended the community conversation about data centers at the Hogansville Public Library.Hannah Barron | Daily News
On Saturday, Science for Georgia’s Dr. Amy Sharma and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Dr. Chris Manganiello spoke to Hogansville residents at the city’s library about how data centers work, some concerns with them, and how residents can ensure data centers are good neighbors.
Sharma is the executive director of Science for Georgia and Manganiello is the water policy director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.
The two spoke of the different types of data centers, including some that just store data to others that are used for Bitcoin mining. They also shared many of the concerns with data centers that city leaders and residents have also expressed lately, including water and power grid strains, tax exemptions for the companies, limited job creation, noise pollution and environmental pollution.
Manganiello also shared why many companies are wanting to come to Georgia to develop their data centers. He said Georgia promises “dirt-cheap” land, water and power with less oversight than some of the other states.
Sharma and Manganiello referenced some legislation that is being worked on at the state level to better regulate data centers, though. Legislation includes Senate Bill 34, which would require data centers to pay their power usage, as well as House Bill 528, or the High Use Facilities Transparency Act, which would require high-resource-use facilities like data centers to submit annual disclosure reports providing detailed information about their energy and water usage and the taxes they pay to the state.
Other legislation includes Senate Bill 94, which would reestablish the Consumer Utility Council to advocate for everyday ratepayers in utility cases heard by the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Sharma and Manganiello also stressed the importance of legislation at the local level, including ordinances to regulate and require that data centers are good neighbors, as well as moratoriums to slow the spread of data centers and give time to address issues with ordinances. For local governments, Sharma and Mangianello emphasized requiring full transparency from developers, implementing state oversight for consistent regulations, mandating that data center companies pay for any upgrades rather than ratepayers, and incentivizing utility efficiency.
Communities need to ensure that is written out how data centers will benefit them, Sharma and Manganiello said.
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The data center experts said residents can also fight back against data centers to ensure the companies and developments will be good neighbors. Residents speaking up and attending meetings is important to make democracy work, Sharma said.
“You all show up at the city council meetings and stuff like that and make your voices heard. That’s your power right there,” Sharma said. “Make the people that are trying to impose data centers scared of you. You all can take them down and win, and that’s really what it is. You come to the table and be like ‘[If] you want my power, you want my resources, you want to come to Hogansville, what are you doing for Hogansville in the long-term? If you’re not doing anything for us right now, then we don’t want any deal you’ve got.’”
Post 4 Council Member Mark Ayers, who was in attendance in the audience, also answered a few questions for residents.
Ayers said he believed the developer proposing the data center development for the former sprayfield property on Hightower Road wants the specific property because of its access to Hogansville’s new transmission line and pipes flowing from the wastewater treatment plant nearby, which other available properties in Hogansville may not have.
Ayers also reemphasized that the city hasn’t received any specific proposal of a certain-sized development or type of data center yet, and the developer would have until March of 2026 to present their proposal if they're interested in the property.
Ayers said they are looking at an option to require the development to use treated wastewater that is currently dumped into Yellow Jacket Creek to cool data facilities when using water-cooling systems a couple of months out of the year.
Ayers said the council is looking at the same questions and concerns that the residents have, but they haven’t negotiated anything because the proposal hasn’t been made.
“All those things are in conversation that I have with myself when I’m losing sleep at night (about data centers),” Ayers said. “This is my city as well. My kids are growing up here as well.”
Featured
Services
December 9, 2025
Hogansville residents hear from data center experts
Hogansville residents learned about potential impacts of data centers, including strains on water, power, and local resources, as experts and officials discussed regulations, transparency, and community action.
THE EXPERTS: Science for Georgia’s Dr. Amy Sharma and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Dr. Chris Manganiello spoke to Hogansville residents on Saturday about some of the issues with data centers and how they can be regulated.Hannah Barron | Daily News
GIVING INFORMATION: Hogansville Post 4 Council Member Mark Ayers answered some questions for the crowd on Saturday who attended the community conversation about data centers at the Hogansville Public Library.Hannah Barron | Daily News
On Saturday, Science for Georgia’s Dr. Amy Sharma and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Dr. Chris Manganiello spoke to Hogansville residents at the city’s library about how data centers work, some concerns with them, and how residents can ensure data centers are good neighbors.
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Sharma is the executive director of Science for Georgia and Manganiello is the water policy director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.
The two spoke of the different types of data centers, including some that just store data to others that are used for Bitcoin mining. They also shared many of the concerns with data centers that city leaders and residents have also expressed lately, including water and power grid strains, tax exemptions for the companies, limited job creation, noise pollution and environmental pollution.
Manganiello also shared why many companies are wanting to come to Georgia to develop their data centers. He said Georgia promises “dirt-cheap” land, water and power with less oversight than some of the other states.
Sharma and Manganiello referenced some legislation that is being worked on at the state level to better regulate data centers, though. Legislation includes Senate Bill 34, which would require data centers to pay their power usage, as well as House Bill 528, or the High Use Facilities Transparency Act, which would require high-resource-use facilities like data centers to submit annual disclosure reports providing detailed information about their energy and water usage and the taxes they pay to the state.
Other legislation includes Senate Bill 94, which would reestablish the Consumer Utility Council to advocate for everyday ratepayers in utility cases heard by the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Sharma and Manganiello also stressed the importance of legislation at the local level, including ordinances to regulate and require that data centers are good neighbors, as well as moratoriums to slow the spread of data centers and give time to address issues with ordinances. For local governments, Sharma and Mangianello emphasized requiring full transparency from developers, implementing state oversight for consistent regulations, mandating that data center companies pay for any upgrades rather than ratepayers, and incentivizing utility efficiency.
Communities need to ensure that is written out how data centers will benefit them, Sharma and Manganiello said.
Don't miss the news!Sign up so you stay in the know.
Do not fill this field[ ]
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The data center experts said residents can also fight back against data centers to ensure the companies and developments will be good neighbors. Residents speaking up and attending meetings is important to make democracy work, Sharma said.
“You all show up at the city council meetings and stuff like that and make your voices heard. That’s your power right there,” Sharma said. “Make the people that are trying to impose data centers scared of you. You all can take them down and win, and that’s really what it is. You come to the table and be like ‘[If] you want my power, you want my resources, you want to come to Hogansville, what are you doing for Hogansville in the long-term? If you’re not doing anything for us right now, then we don’t want any deal you’ve got.’”
Post 4 Council Member Mark Ayers, who was in attendance in the audience, also answered a few questions for residents.
Ayers said he believed the developer proposing the data center development for the former sprayfield property on Hightower Road wants the specific property because of its access to Hogansville’s new transmission line and pipes flowing from the wastewater treatment plant nearby, which other available properties in Hogansville may not have.
Ayers also reemphasized that the city hasn’t received any specific proposal of a certain-sized development or type of data center yet, and the developer would have until March of 2026 to present their proposal if they're interested in the property.
Ayers said they are looking at an option to require the development to use treated wastewater that is currently dumped into Yellow Jacket Creek to cool data facilities when using water-cooling systems a couple of months out of the year.
Ayers said the council is looking at the same questions and concerns that the residents have, but they haven’t negotiated anything because the proposal hasn’t been made.
“All those things are in conversation that I have with myself when I’m losing sleep at night (about data centers),” Ayers said. “This is my city as well. My kids are growing up here as well.”