Data centers in Fayette County, Georgia: 3 projects mapped

The fight that shaped both decisions was over QTS's water. In May 2025, after a neighbor near the Annelise Park subdivision complained of low water pressure, the county water director, Vanessa Tigert, wrote to QTS that a meter had been installed "without the knowledge or inspection" of county staff, and the county billed the company about $147,000. When the letter surfaced through a records request in 2026, the county walked it back: "Our letter was unclear." County Administrator Steve Rapson told The Citizen that staff had inspected the meter but believed it was being read electronically during a switch to smart meters, and that it was not. "It's not like they put a meter in, threw a camel net over it, and we didn't know," he said. QTS paid, and says it has stayed within its permitted estimates. Atlanta News First's analysis of billing records found the county had billed QTS for 109 million gallons across 13 water lines since February 2024, which QTS says went on concrete, dust control and site preparation.

The county and QTS say the construction demand will fall away. QTS says each finished building will use about as much water as four American households, because its closed-loop cooling recirculates the same water, and the county says QTS uses less than 1 percent of its daily production. Neighbors are unconvinced. "If my daughter down here tapped into that big pipeline down the road without putting a meter on it, she'd be in jail," Willard Neal, 87, who lives near the site, told Atlanta News First. "A data center is not going to jail." He called living beside it "terrible," citing tree clearing, construction and a constant hum. A few miles away in Tyrone, the county's other approved project, Microsoft's Project Rita Campus, is moving ahead at 96 megawatts of power, the only other capacity figure reported in the county.