-Update!!!-

3/18/2026  Many are still fighting against this project! YOU CAN TOO!
 This was from an instagram post by @danielledoepke "IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION - On March 13, 2026, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) released a Public Notice regarding Google’s latest expansion request for their data center campus in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Phase III of Google’s Project Zodiac seeks to add three additional buildings in addition to other infrastructure.

According to reporting by Tom Powell from 21Alive News, “We’re talking more than 867,000 square feet total. If all three buildings were the same size, they would each be the size of a large IKEA store just like the one down in Fishers.”

To make room for the buildings (and other infrastructure), Google intends to destroy and permanently impact local waterways like Adams Ditch and long-standing, naturally occurring, biodiverse wetlands.

IDEM is now accepting public comments on Google’s proposal through Friday, April 3, 2026. 📣 Demand a public hearing.📣 According to the Public Notice, “Only comments or information related to water quality or potential impacts of the project on water quality can be considered by IDEM in the water quality certification review process. The request should also state the reason for the public hearing as specifically as possible to assist IDEM in determining whether a public hearing is warranted.”

Email your comments to WaterwaysComments@idem.IN.gov with the IDEM Permit Number WQC001454 in the subject line."

 

-End UPDATE-

 

There is a huge Google Data Center planned to be built in Fort Wayne called Project Zodiac (700 acres).

They plan to temporary fill in "protected" wetland areas so they can get electrical hooked up to it. I have discovered from some sources some of the wetlands in these areas have already been destroyed!

I seriously doubt there plans involve evacuating wildlife currently living in said wetland and re-locating them until they re-plant and re-fill in the wetlands. What will happen to the animals who cannot move or have no  were to go when they fill in this wetland area? IF they fill in these areas will they not be killing fish (impossible for them to move), as well as many other animals like frogs, amphibians and reptiles who cannot move due to they are getting ready to hibernate for the winter? and even if they could move were would they go?

 Wetlands are vital ecosystems filled with insects, amphibians, birds,reptiles, mammals, and fish. Indiana lays in the route of thousands to millions of migrating birds, birds that rely on these wetlands to survive for shelter and food during migration.

 Even if they are capable of restoring this vital habitat....what will the impact be of the data center after that?

  Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people. Data center developers are increasingly tapping into surface and underground aquifers to cool their facilities...so how long will the wetlands actually stay restored for?  If your not worried about the wetlands you may at least be concerned about the higher water and utility bills!

^source- Enviromental Energy Study Institute

and it won't just affect our water and wetlands, it will affect our air quality as well!

"This air pollution is expected to result in as many as 1,300 premature deaths per year by 2030 in the United States. Total public health costs from cancers, asthma, and other diseases, as well as from missed work and school days are approaching an estimated $20 billion per year." < source Adam Wierman from Caltech Univeristy

 

"Indiana has already had many of its wetland habitats destroyed,Because so many wetlands have been lost or degraded, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources reports that Indiana has more than 120 species of wetland plants that are now endangered, threatened, or rare, and over 60 wetland-dependent animal species that are listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern. Nationally, nearly 35% of all rare and endangered animal species depend on these dwindling habitats for survival."

 ~Source Sycomore Land Trust~

 Wetlands are also vital for flood and erosion control, carbon sequestration, and water quality.  We've had a horrible drought through the summer and increasing summer droughts through the past few years it seems. Water is so important...Do we really want to let a big corporate entity like a Google Data Center into our city to destroy precious wildlife and habitat like this? And its not just animals who need clean water, we do too! will we destroy all this for a quick buck? for, AI slop and chat GPT? 

If your like me you don't want this to happen, you want to preserve the few natural wetland areas we have left! You want  safe clean water and abundant wildlife for current and future populations.

I'm starting this petition in hopes that it will get some traction and find some way to get out there that people don't want to see this happen! If anyone owns a fax machine who is also opposed to this happening,

 

 

 

 

 

"When you just take a quarter acre here and a quarter acre there, over and over again, it adds up. So to me, you have to resist that loss. Every single time somebody wants to do it.” -Bruce Kingsbury, Director of Purdue Fort Wayne’s Environmental Resources Center (ERC) and Professor of Biology.

 

"Google already plans to fill in more than six acres of wetlands for the six buildings of Phases 1 and 2. Combined with the new projected losses (2.47 acres), the amount would reach 8.54 acres – not counting future phases of the campus buildout, which is expected to total 12 buildings.

Indiana Endangered Species worth fighting for

 

 

 

 

"Because some of these wetlands are protected, Google is required to seek permission and make up for wetland losses – but not in the same part of Allen County (Southeast) where they’re filling wetlands. According to Inside Indiana Business, “Google is proposing to purchase wetlands mitigation credits in Eel River Township on the northwestern edge of Allen County.” Credits allow companies to offset wetland destruction by creating or enhancing wetlands in another part of the state."

Supporting or protecting wetlands in another place doesn’t change the damage done to the community where wetlands are filled. Kingsbury points out that wetland mitigation credits technically satisfy the current policy on wetland preservation (No Net Loss). But “it doesn’t make up for” the effects on those downstream, who are likely to see increased flooding as a result of lost wetlands. "