Protect Lowndes County

For reporters

Press

Primary documents, not our summary of them. Everything below traces to a named source, and we will tell you plainly which claims we grade as unverified.

For immediate release

Protect Lowndes County joins Alabama Rivers Alliance; SELC and NRDC file records request on Project Red Clay.

HAYNEVILLE, Ala., July 27, 2026.

Protect Lowndes County announced today that it is working alongside the Alabama Rivers Alliance in opposing Project Red Clay, a proposed hyperscale data center on farmland along U.S. Highway 80 in Lowndes County, Alabama1​. The Southern Environmental Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a public-records request with the Lowndes County Commission the same day, on behalf of both organizations2​.

The request, filed under Alabama's Open Records Act, asks the county for ten categories of documents: confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements touching the project, site-selection and economic-development records, utility and infrastructure planning, incentive and tax-abatement discussions, the governance records of the Lowndes County Economic Development Commission, property transactions tied to the project, environmental and noise studies, permit applications and permits issued, and the minutes of every meeting where the project was discussed. Alabama law sets a first statutory checkpoint of ten working days from receipt, falling on or before August 10, 2026, though the county may lawfully designate the request time-intensive and take longer to complete it3​.

Project Red Clay is a proposed data center campus of roughly 1,050 acres and 3.01 million square feet, with an electrical request of roughly 1,500 megawatts, about ten times the threshold at which Alabama's new large-load statute requires state utility review4​5​6​. The developer, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, has not named the facility's eventual operator7​.

Protect Lowndes County is a residents' group formed around one question: whether a thirty-year commitment involving an unnamed operator should be decided before the community has seen the underlying contracts. It does not oppose growth and is not a law firm. The Alabama Rivers Alliance is a statewide network that has spent nearly thirty years building and supporting more than a hundred community and watershed groups working for clean water across Alabama.

Press contact
Protect Lowndes County
info@protectlowndescounty.org

The facts fit on a note card

The numbers, at a glance.

Every version of a disputed figure, including conflicting job counts and investment figures, is on The Math and The Secrecy, each next to its source and date.

Primary document

The records request.

Filed July 27, 2026 by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council, on behalf of the Alabama Rivers Alliance and Protect Lowndes County, and addressed to the County Administrator's office, naming Kimberly McGrew-West as custodian. First statutory deadline on or before August 10, 2026 under Ala. Code § 36-12-44(a)(3).

Read the full letter (PDF)See the full record and tracker

Assets

Logo and photography.

Logo

Free to use in editorial coverage of Protect Lowndes County. Do not modify the mark or use it in a way that implies our endorsement of another organization or product.

Documentary photography

Every photograph used elsewhere on this site is real, third-party material, not ours to grant rights to. Credit and license for every openly licensed one are listed below. Nothing is AI-generated.

  • The Lowndes County Courthouse, Hayneville. Where the Commission meets.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • Lowndesboro C.M.E. Church, built 1833.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • Lowndesboro First Missionary Baptist Church, built 1880.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • The Viola Liuzzo memorial on U.S. Highway 80, where she was murdered in 1965 driving marchers home from Montgomery.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • Holly House, 1836, Lowndesboro Historic District.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • The Will Stone Store, 1820, Lowndesboro Historic District.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • Hayneville, the county seat.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
  • Black Belt timber and farmland just east of the proposed parcel.U.S. Geological Survey, National Map · Public domain
  • Longleaf pine, the ecosystem this part of Alabama sits in.USDA NRCS via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  • Six-mile context aerial centered on the proposed site near Burkville. Imagery is USGS and may be one to three years old.U.S. Geological Survey, National Map · Public domain
  • The same six-mile field of view as a USGS topographic map.U.S. Geological Survey, National Map · Public domain
  • The proposed parcel near the junction of U.S. 80 and AL-21, about a mile and a half across. USGS imagery, not a site plan.U.S. Geological Survey, National Map · Public domain
  • High-voltage transmission infrastructure. Illustrative, not the proposed route.Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • An industrial diesel backup generator at a data center. Illustrative: the number, fuel, and permitted hours proposed here have not been disclosed.Wikimedia Commons · CC0 public domain
  • Residents hold NO DATA CENTER signs at a Lowndes County Commission meeting.Photograph by a Protect Lowndes County member · Used with permission
  • A PurgeRite service truck fueling on the morning of July 29, 2026. PurgeRite is a Texas company that flushes and purges the cooling loops inside data centers.Photograph by a Protect Lowndes County member · Used with permission
  • Neighbors arrive at the courthouse for the August 24, 2026 Commission meeting.Photograph by a Protect Lowndes County member · Used with permission
  • One of the youngest in the room, August 24, 2026.Photograph by a Protect Lowndes County member · Used with permission
  • Commission Chairman Charlie King Jr. at the dais, August 24, 2026.Photograph by a Protect Lowndes County member · Used with permission

Still need something?

We will point you to primary documents rather than our summary of them, and tell you plainly which claims we grade as unverified. Write to info@protectlowndescounty.org, or use the contact form.

Sources on this page

  1. ↑

    ADEM construction stormwater permit ALR10C89L, Red Clay Technology Campus, Alabama Department of Environmental Management (2026-07-08). Notice of Intent, property and disturbed area — view source

    Accessed 2026-08-06
  2. ↑

    Records Request for Documents related to Project Red Clay Data Center, Southern Environmental Law Center and Natural Resources Defense Council (2026-07-27). Letter addressed to the County Administrator’s office, naming Kimberly McGrew-West as custodian — view source

    Accessed 2026-07-28
  3. ↑

    Records Request for Documents related to Project Red Clay Data Center, Southern Environmental Law Center and Natural Resources Defense Council (2026-07-27). Response-deadline provision, citing Ala. Code § 36-12-44(a)(3) — view source

    ReportedAccessed 2026-07-28
  4. ↑

    In rural Alabama, voters feel sold out to massive data centers: ‘Slap in the face’, al.com (2026-08-09). Reporting by Ruth Serven Smith — view source

    ReportedAccessed 2026-08-10
  5. ↑

    Rural Alabama Community Opposes Hyperscale Data Center, Inside Climate News (2026-06-10). Company plan reviewed by ICN — view source

    ReportedAccessed 2026-07-12
  6. ↑

    Rural Alabama Community Opposes Hyperscale Data Center, Inside Climate News (2026-06-10). ICN and public Cloverleaf statements — view source

    ReportedAccessed 2026-07-12
  7. ↑

    Records Request for Documents related to Project Red Clay Data Center, Southern Environmental Law Center and Natural Resources Defense Council (2026-07-27). Request scope: confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements — view source

    Not disclosed by the projectAccessed 2026-07-12

Last updated