Bemidji group to host public forum on hyperscale data centers

Indivisible Bemidji is bringing the hyperscale data center debate to Earth Day, with a public forum set for April 22 at 7 p.m. at the Northwest Indian Community Development Center, 1819 Bemidji Ave. N. The event, billed as “Hyperscale Data Centers: What to Know,” will feature Luke Norquist of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and focus on the environmental and community impacts of these massive facilities.

The setting matters as much as the topic. NWICDC says it has served the greater Bemidji area for more than 35 years, and describes itself as a Native-led nonprofit centered on the needs of the Indigenous community. That makes the forum part of a larger local conversation about who gets heard when land use, energy systems and environmental risks collide in Beltrami County.

Residents who attend are likely to hear the central questions that now define hyperscale data centers across Minnesota: how much electricity a project would demand, how much water it would use, where it would be sited, and whether industrial-scale development fits near homes, roads and existing neighborhoods. Those concerns are not abstract. MCEA has said one North Mankato project under review was described as a vaguely defined 4 million-square-foot technology park, and that it could draw up to 30 million gallons of water per day from the Mt. Simon Hinckley Aquifer. Even a mid-sized data center can consume about 300,000 gallons of water a day.

The statewide debate has intensified fast. In February, opponents were pushing for a two-year pause on new hyperscale data centers, saying Minnesota’s rules still do not fully protect communities or the environment. At that point, at least a dozen projects had been proposed in Minnesota, and only one hyperscale facility, Meta’s project in Rosemount, was under construction. The Legislature also changed the tax structure last year, ending the sales-tax exemption on electricity purchases for data centers starting July 1, 2025, while keeping a 35-year sales-tax exemption for enterprise IT equipment and software used by qualifying facilities.

Bemidji-area leaders were already wrestling with those issues at Bemidji Day at the Capitol on March 11. Rep. Matt Bliss said there had not been enough discussion about planning, the electrical grid and water supply. Mayor Jorge Prince said the City of Bemidji had not been approached about a data center and had not signed any nondisclosure agreements.

Norquist, a legal fellow with MCEA, has been tracking data-center proposals across Minnesota and was involved in the organization’s first lawsuits challenging environmental review. That legal and planning backdrop is what gives the April 22 meeting its urgency. Before any project is proposed in or near Bemidji, the key questions are already clear: where the power would come from, how water use would be managed, what land would be converted, and what protections nearby neighborhoods would have before a hyperscale facility can move ahead.