Data center developer Quantica Infrastructure has begun construction on its Big Sky Campus in Yellowstone County, Montana, according to Montana Free Press. Postcards mailed to area residents said the company began staging equipment in early September on the nearly 8-square-mile property outside the town of Broadview.
The first on-site work is the construction of access roads and a well, with workers starting earlier this month. Drilling the well could begin "as early as the end of September," according to the mailer. A Quantica spokesperson declined to name the company doing the well work, describing it only as an "experienced environmental and engineering services firm in Billings."
Quantica has agreed to use local, unionized labor when possible, under a memorandum of understanding signed in June with the Southeastern Montana Building and Construction Trades Council. Details on job numbers or wages won't be available until Quantica secures an "end user" to purchase the facility, according to the council's vice president.
The project, which would be among the largest in the world as currently planned, has drawn public opposition, with residents pressing county commissioners over concerns the data center will draw down local water supplies used for homes, businesses and agriculture. Quantica says it plans to tap the "underutilized" Madison Aquifer, which sits roughly 1,300 feet deeper than the Eagle Aquifer that serves the Broadview area. The company expects the project to require up to 150,000 gallons of water per day during construction and 20,000 gallons per day once operational, and says it will use a closed-loop cooling system that recirculates liquid to absorb heat.
Efforts to get Yellowstone County to enact an interim zoning pause on the project, similar to a step Missoula County took in July, have stalled after the county attorney warned that blocking the project could trigger a lawsuit and fines for taxpayers. Quantica spokesperson Travis Hall said community response to the groundbreaking has been "largely positive," adding that "the vast majority of the Broadview community has welcomed the newest development of the company's infrastructure project."