BONNER — A proposal is in the works to put an artificial intelligence data center at the Bonner Mill Industrial Park. The plan would put a small data center in the former United Forest Products building along Highway 200.
“In terms of data centers that we think of today, this would be very certainly on a small scale,” said Mike Heisey, general manager of the mill site.
“In looking around to fill that building, I explored as many opportunities and options as we could find,” Heisey said. “We have been unable to find anything, actually any industry, that's willing to move to Bonner, Montana and set up operations other than a data center.”
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Heisey said the company behind the proposal, a data center company which will be revealed later this week, was drawn to Bonner by the building’s infrastructure. It already housed a data center a few years ago. There is currently infrastructure in place for 30 megawatts externally at the facitlity.
“The infrastructure inside the building is good for about nine to 10 megawatts, and that's where they plan to start. They do want to expand to the extent that they can over time,” he said. "Most data centers you're thinking of 100 plus megawatts worth of power. This is not that.”
The power would come from Energy Keepers in Polson. Heisey said that, because of the size and type of data center being proposed, it would not have much impact on the surrounding area.
“We're as committed to the environmental portion of this as anyone and maybe even more so, because it's our property and we absolutely have a great concern about that,” he said. “I have vetted this with drawings of the servers. I've vetted it with the client to the extent that I believe with all my heart there is no environmental concern here.”
Heisey said it would use very little water and that the proposal’s impact to both the environment and the community is a priority.
“This particular data center, the servers they use are internally cooled, so no fan noise to speak of. Water usage, they're closed loop systems, so once they're filled, they just continue to circulate,” he said. “There is a small amount of water that's lost to evaporation just going through a cooling tower, but in full production, it's not a very great portion of water.”
The mill and the data center company have been meeting with Missoula County officials about zoning and regulations and are preparing to sign a lease. Heisey said the proposed data center would bring back about 20 of the 60 to 70 jobs lost when Universal Forest Products closed.
“This will keep us viable. This will allow us to continue to keep our doors open, continue to protect the clients that we already have that rely on us to keep our gates open,” he said.
Friends of Two Rivers is hosting a meeting about the proposal this Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Ann Catholic Church in Bonner. Representatives from the mill, the data center company CEO and staff and the county will be there to answer questions from the community.
“Well, it's very simple. I'm not an outsider. We live here. My children were raised here, went to school here,” Heisey said. “So, we’re very invested in the community and we certainly want to be good neighbors and we want to provide as much transparency in what we're going to do as we possibly can.”
MTN News plans to attend the meeting and follow along as this story develops.
