Data centers in Colleton County, South Carolina: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

The proposal Colleton County is fighting would sit at the headwaters of the ACE Basin, a 1.7-million-acre watershed of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers that has been protected by conservation easements for nearly 40 years. In late 2025 the County Council changed its zoning so that a data center could be approved in the rural development zone through a single special-exception vote of the Zoning Board of Appeals, a body the council appoints. Soon after, Eagle Rock Partners, a two-man Charlotte developer, applied under the new rule for a nine-building, 1,000 megawatt campus on 859 acres south of Walterboro, which its opponents' complaint says would be one of the largest data center complexes in the country. The project carried the code name "Project Boulder" in county documents, and who would ultimately use it has not been disclosed.

More than 450 people came to the zoning board's hearing at the county civic center in December; Eagle Rock's Ken Loeber was the only speaker in favor. "The AI race in this country against other countries is real," he said, promising a closed-loop, non-evaporative cooling system, no rise in power rates, payment for transmission and substations, and 450 to 500 jobs. State Sen. Chip Campsen said: "To have a data center at the headwaters of one of those three rivers that the ACE Basin stands for is very troubling to me." The board told Eagle Rock it would have to reapply. In January the Southern Environmental Law Center sued the county on behalf of residents Miles Crosby and Jennifer Singleton, arguing the ordinance violates state law, the comprehensive plan and the zoning code. "We cannot allow this ordinance to threaten our star-filled night skies, natural quiet, and enjoyment of landscapes with light, water, and noise pollution," Crosby said. In February seven state legislators whose districts cover parts of the county, four Republicans and three Democrats, signed a proclamation against the project.

The secrecy became a story of its own. The Post and Courier obtained nondisclosure agreements that council members Steven D. Murdaugh and Scott Biering had signed with the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, and a December email in which the county's economic development director warned officials not to discuss "Project Boulder." Loeber did not respond to the newspaper's questions about the company's past projects or whether it will reapply; since the hearing there has been turnover on the zoning board. The power question reaches beyond the site: Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy are planning a 2,200 megawatt gas plant at Canadys in the county, and the SELC says the data center would need almost half its output. In the legislature, Sen. Tom Davis has proposed state permitting that would keep data centers away from places like the ACE Basin. "There are certain parts of South Carolina that clearly aren't suitable for data centers," he said.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.