# Identifying the Unnamed Cooling-Water Data Centers The Arkansas Department of Agriculture's water-records production surfaced **two hyperscale-scale data-center cooling-water projects that are not named in the corpus** — referred to here as the "Arup project" and the "McClelland Consulting Engineers project" (see [[Data-Center Cooling-Water Regulatory Correspondence]]). This page records an attempt, on 2026-05-22, to identify them through web research. **The result is that neither can be identified from the public record.** This is a `confidence: low` page: it documents an unresolved question and the reasoning around it, not a finding. ## The two projects and what they share - **The Arup project** (2024–2025): the engineering firm [[Arup]] made a confidential water-infrastructure due-diligence inquiry to Arkansas regulators for "proposed industrial facilities in Arkansas," describing non-contact cooling-water demand of "hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons per day," sourced from **groundwater**, with evaporative loss, across a phased multi-building campus. The project name and site were withheld for "project confidentiality." - **The McClelland project** (2024–2026): [[McClelland Consulting Engineers]] told the Department it was doing "primary work on possible well locations and capacity for the required cooling water needed for a future data center," with wells planned to draw **4.32 MGD from the [[Sparta Aquifer]]**. Both projects share one defining feature: **cooling supplied by dedicated, large-capacity groundwater wells**, on the order of millions of gallons per day. That groundwater-well fingerprint is what an identification must match. ## Why neither could be matched Web research on 2026-05-22 examined the publicly announced Arkansas hyperscale data centers. None that the archived public record discloses is a match for a dedicated multi-MGD groundwater well field: - **AVAIO Digital "Leo" (Pulaski County)** — the largest announced central-Arkansas project ($6 billion phase 1, up to 1 GW; 760 acres). Its announcement describes only "water-efficient cooling technologies" and "rainwater recapture systems" and **does not disclose a primary cooling-water source** of any kind, let alone a groundwater well field (primary public record, [AEDC AVAIO Leo announcement](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/www.arkansasedc.com/avaio-digital-leo-announcement.md)). By timing (a 2024–2025 pre-land-purchase window), scale, and Pulaski County location, Project Leo is the most prominent candidate for the Arup project — but the public record does not confirm it as a groundwater-cooled project, so the identification cannot be made. - **"Project Pulse" (Clark County)** — a data-center project for the Gum Springs mega-site uses a **closed-loop cooling system of roughly 50,000 gallons per day** — three orders of magnitude below the McClelland project's 4.32 MGD (web research 2026-05-22, [The Arkadelphian](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/arkadelphian.com/data-center-eyes-clark-county.md)) — and the site's contract was later terminated: the EDCCC board formally acknowledged termination on 2026-05-01 after DC Devco missed the $200,000 earnest-money deadline (web research 2026-06-10, [The Arkadelphian, 2026-05-01](../../web%20archive/2026-06-10/arkadelphian.com/edccc-formalizes-contract-termination-with-data-center-project.md)). Not a match. - **The Google / "Project Pyramid" data center (West Memphis)** is separately and firmly identified in the corpus; its water-use registration covers two *existing alluvial-aquifer* wells — a different profile, and a different aquifer from the Sparta. It is not the Arup or McClelland project. - Secondary reporting describes additional announced Arkansas data-center projects — including one at **Conway** and one at **Clarksville**. The [[The Conway Data Center Project|Conway project]] is now documented from Tier-1 and Tier-2 records: its cooling water would be treated effluent from the Tupelo Bayou Wastewater Treatment Plant (reclaimed wastewater), not a dedicated groundwater well field — so it is **not** either of the two unnamed groundwater-cooled projects. The Clarksville project's cooling configuration remains uncharacterized in the corpus. ## What the non-match means It is itself notable that **no publicly announced Arkansas data center is on record as planning a dedicated large-capacity groundwater well field** — the very thing both unnamed projects describe. The most likely explanations, none of them established: 1. One or both unnamed projects are an **early-phase plan for an announced project** whose cooling design later changed or was simply never publicized — consistent with the Arup inquiry's framing as pre-land-purchase "due diligence" and with the McClelland figure being an engineer's planning estimate. 2. One or both are projects that **never advanced to a public announcement**. 3. One or both are projects **not yet public** as of this research. ## New input (2026-06-08): DEE-DEQ confirms wet cooling at Pyramid, but no site's water source is named The [[deq/seek-pds-data-center-permits-2026-06-08/_overview|DEE-DEQ SEEK/PDS production]] adds Tier-1 data on the cooling question without closing it: - **Project Pyramid (Google / West Memphis) uses evaporative cooling.** The [[Project Pyramid Title V Air Permit (2507-AOP-R0)|Title V air permit 2507-AOP-R0]] lists **60 cooling towers (SN-08)** among the permitted emission units — confirming **wet/evaporative cooling** at the confirmed-Google site, consistent with (and the consumptive end-use of) the alluvial-aquifer wells in the [[Google Data Center Water-Use Registration]]. The air permit does **not** name the makeup-water source (it regulates air, not water). - **AVAIO / Project Leo's cooling source is still entirely unnamed.** AVAIO/Leo has **no air permit, no operational NPDES-discharge permit, and no cooling-water-withdrawal record** in SEEK or PDS — only construction-stormwater. The "Arup project" lead toward Project Leo therefore remains **unconfirmed**: DEQ holds no operational water record for Leo at all. - **Net effect:** the production sharpens the Pyramid picture (wet cooling, 60 towers) but **does not identify a cooling-water source for any site**, and adds no match for the dedicated multi-MGD groundwater well field the Arup/McClelland projects describe. The gap persists; the Tier-1 channel that would close it (an operational NPDES/withdrawal record, or the item-6 pre-permitting correspondence due ≤ 2026-06-11) has not yet been produced. ## New input (2026-06-11): a prospective cooling source named for Pyramid — at Tier-3 Bob Atkins, general manager of **West Memphis Utilities** (the city's electric, water, and sewer provider), told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the Google data center **"will eventually use 'gray water'" — treated wastewater — and "the company will pay for that"**; Mayor McClendon added the facility won't use gas turbines (web research 2026-06-11, [ADG report](../../web%20archive/2026-06-11/www.arkansasonline.com/google-west-memphis-60b-bonds-2026-06-04.md); see [[2026-06 Reporting Details the West Memphis 60-Billion-Dollar Bond Cap for the Google Data Center]]). Three cautions: (1) **Tier-3** — a utility manager's statement to a reporter, not a permit or contract; (2) **prospective** — "eventually" implies an interim source the statement does not name (the [[Google Data Center Water-Use Registration|registered on-site wells]] remain the only Tier-1 water record); (3) **no regulatory correlate yet** — no effluent-reuse instrument appears in SEEK/PDS or the Agriculture records. It is the first public naming of a planned cooling source for any of the wet-cooled sites; the Tier-1 record that would confirm it (a municipal effluent-supply agreement or NPDES reuse authorization) is now a specific, locatable FOIA target at the City of West Memphis / West Memphis Utilities. The Leo, Conway-blowdown, and Arup/McClelland gaps are unaffected. ## Caveats - Web research is Tier 2–3 evidence; it contextualizes but never establishes what an Arkansas project or agency did. The Tier-1 record of the two projects is the FOIA correspondence in [[Data-Center Cooling-Water Regulatory Correspondence]]. - The enumeration of announced Arkansas data centers above is not exhaustive. Several secondary sources could not be archived this session because their publishers blocked automated retrieval; a fuller web survey could add projects. - "Cannot verify" is a legitimate finding. Neither unnamed project is identified here, and the circumstantial lead toward AVAIO / Project Leo for the Arup project is **not** an identification. ## Open questions - Identification is better pursued through **Tier-1 channels** than web research: a FOIA to the Division of Environmental Quality and/or the Department of Agriculture for **water-well registrations and Class V underground-injection-control filings** naming [[Arup]] or [[McClelland Consulting Engineers]] as engineer of record; and a FOIA to AEDC for project files. A well registration would tie an engineer to a specific named site. - The Arup correspondence references a multi-parcel site straddling two public water systems' service areas near a state highway; those geographic clues, run against county GIS and water-utility service boundaries, could narrow the site. - Whether the McClelland project's November 2024 and January 2026 inquiries concern the same project is not established in the corpus.