Blue Fern Data Center, Cle Elum, Washington

Blue Fern Development's proposed 20-megawatt data center at its Bullfrog Flats development in Cle Elum, Kittitas County, Washington, prompted the city to pass a six-month moratorium on new data centers on July 31, 2026, just three days after the company unveiled the plan. The moratorium may not stop the project, though, because the site is covered by a 2002 development agreement, and the city has not decided whether a data center counts as an already-permitted use under it.

Blue Fern plans a 100,000-square-foot data center costing about $200 million, using a closed-loop cooling system that would need about 80,000 gallons of water in its first year and much less afterward, and Puget Sound Energy said it could reliably serve the 20-megawatt project. Company representative Ben Paulus called it a "research sized data center" that would employ 20 to 40 people.

Resident John Carlson, who has lived in Cle Elum for decades, said, "From what I understand with these data centers, they take a lot of electricity and power that we need to sustain our regular usage, and it is increasing rates across the country." Councilmember Steven Harper warned residents not to expect too much from the moratorium: "This is not a magical Band-aid that obviously fixes it."

Kittitas County passed its own six-month moratorium on August 10 and scheduled a hearing on extending it for September 15, and the Cle Elum City Council scheduled its own hearing on the moratorium for September 8; both hearings were scheduled and no results have been published. The decisions rest with the Cle Elum City Council, Mayor Matthew Lundh and the Kittitas County commissioners, including whether a data center is allowed under the 2002 Bullfrog Flats agreement.