NO AI DATA CENTER IN WILLISTON, ND
The Issue
**DO NOT DONATE MONEY. IT IS NOT NEEDED.**
The goal of this petition is to stop the planned project of a data center campus called Project Fighting Pike.
As generative AI technology rises to the forefront of the tech industry, we see its impact on several communities and cities across the United States more and more clearly. AI companies are building hyper-scale AI data centers, regardless of concerns from citizens in the area, causing potable water depletion and pollution, along with extreme noise pollution, and citizens paying extra costs on their energy bills because of the data centers. This is completely unacceptable, and puts us and our livelihood at risk, all so huge AI companies can profit off of our land and resources.
There is currently a planned data center off of 56th Street NW and Highway 2 of Williston, North Dakota called Project Fighting Pike. The center is proposed to be 455MW, and span across 300 acres featuring 7 buildings total. The buildings are said to range between 255,000 and 500,000 sq ft and utilize closed-loop water systems and direct-to-chip liquid cooling. (Source: https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/north-dakota/williston/project-fighting-pike-building-1/
While our government tries to convince us that these data centers won’t be an issue because of closed-loop systems or natural gas usage, they’re not telling us the full scope. In the article The Illusion of Waterless AI: How Closed-Loop Data Centers Shift the Fresh Water Burden to Power Plants published 10/24/2025 by Brad Martineau, we find that these closed-loop systems take exponentially more energy to power than open-loop: “A single hyper-scale AI data center these days can draw between 100 megawatts and 1 gigawatt of power, if not more, which is equivalent to the consumption of a mid-sized to large-sized city.” This is extremely concerning for many reasons; The scale of electricity needed for these data centers is most often generated by thermoelectric power plants, which are known to be one of the largest freshwater consumers in the US. Even without the data centers using freshwater directly, they’re still contributing heavily to a freshwater shortage via their power usage. The article continues, saying: “According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, thermoelectric power generation accounts for the largest share of industrial water withdrawals in the country. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that in 2005, power plants withdrew approximately 201 billion gallons of water per day, with most of it used for cooling purposes. This means that every additional megawatt of electricity consumed by a data center indirectly increases the water demand at the power plant level. In regions where water scarcity is already acute, this shift can have serious consequences for local communities.” (Source: https://gneuton.com/the-illusion-of-waterless-ai-how-closed-loop-data-centers-shift-the-fresh-water-burden-to-power-plants
Along with this, thousands of people across the country are reporting their own experiences living near an AI data center. These people express low water pressure and even unclear, brown water coming from their faucets, extreme levels of noise and light at all hours of the day and night, significantly increased energy and water bills, and even reports of large amounts of heat radiating from the centers, and smells of chemicals or gasoline. These are real people, same as you or I, experiencing these things first hand. (Source: https://www.newsweek.com/what-its-really-like-to-live-next-to-a-data-center-12036378 https://www.businessinsider.com/living-next-to-data-centers-terrible-wont-leave-dream-home-2025-10?op=1
While big tech and our government try to convince us that we’re being psychologically manipulated by China and people are getting paid to lead campaigns against data centers, we know the truth: we’re REAL people, with REAL concerns about our livelihood. So many people have been here in Northwest North Dakota for generations upon generations, having to watch the land they love become something unrecognizable. Please, if you love this land, consider signing this petition and joining the fight to protect our communities.
Sources: https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/north-dakota/williston/project-fighting-pike-building-1/
https://www.newsweek.com/what-its-really-like-to-live-next-to-a-data-center-12036378
300
The Issue
**DO NOT DONATE MONEY. IT IS NOT NEEDED.**
The goal of this petition is to stop the planned project of a data center campus called Project Fighting Pike.
As generative AI technology rises to the forefront of the tech industry, we see its impact on several communities and cities across the United States more and more clearly. AI companies are building hyper-scale AI data centers, regardless of concerns from citizens in the area, causing potable water depletion and pollution, along with extreme noise pollution, and citizens paying extra costs on their energy bills because of the data centers. This is completely unacceptable, and puts us and our livelihood at risk, all so huge AI companies can profit off of our land and resources.
There is currently a planned data center off of 56th Street NW and Highway 2 of Williston, North Dakota called Project Fighting Pike. The center is proposed to be 455MW, and span across 300 acres featuring 7 buildings total. The buildings are said to range between 255,000 and 500,000 sq ft and utilize closed-loop water systems and direct-to-chip liquid cooling. (Source: https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/north-dakota/williston/project-fighting-pike-building-1/
While our government tries to convince us that these data centers won’t be an issue because of closed-loop systems or natural gas usage, they’re not telling us the full scope. In the article The Illusion of Waterless AI: How Closed-Loop Data Centers Shift the Fresh Water Burden to Power Plants published 10/24/2025 by Brad Martineau, we find that these closed-loop systems take exponentially more energy to power than open-loop: “A single hyper-scale AI data center these days can draw between 100 megawatts and 1 gigawatt of power, if not more, which is equivalent to the consumption of a mid-sized to large-sized city.” This is extremely concerning for many reasons; The scale of electricity needed for these data centers is most often generated by thermoelectric power plants, which are known to be one of the largest freshwater consumers in the US. Even without the data centers using freshwater directly, they’re still contributing heavily to a freshwater shortage via their power usage. The article continues, saying: “According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, thermoelectric power generation accounts for the largest share of industrial water withdrawals in the country. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that in 2005, power plants withdrew approximately 201 billion gallons of water per day, with most of it used for cooling purposes. This means that every additional megawatt of electricity consumed by a data center indirectly increases the water demand at the power plant level. In regions where water scarcity is already acute, this shift can have serious consequences for local communities.” (Source: https://gneuton.com/the-illusion-of-waterless-ai-how-closed-loop-data-centers-shift-the-fresh-water-burden-to-power-plants
Along with this, thousands of people across the country are reporting their own experiences living near an AI data center. These people express low water pressure and even unclear, brown water coming from their faucets, extreme levels of noise and light at all hours of the day and night, significantly increased energy and water bills, and even reports of large amounts of heat radiating from the centers, and smells of chemicals or gasoline. These are real people, same as you or I, experiencing these things first hand. (Source: https://www.newsweek.com/what-its-really-like-to-live-next-to-a-data-center-12036378 https://www.businessinsider.com/living-next-to-data-centers-terrible-wont-leave-dream-home-2025-10?op=1
While big tech and our government try to convince us that we’re being psychologically manipulated by China and people are getting paid to lead campaigns against data centers, we know the truth: we’re REAL people, with REAL concerns about our livelihood. So many people have been here in Northwest North Dakota for generations upon generations, having to watch the land they love become something unrecognizable. Please, if you love this land, consider signing this petition and joining the fight to protect our communities.
Sources: https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/north-dakota/williston/project-fighting-pike-building-1/
https://www.newsweek.com/what-its-really-like-to-live-next-to-a-data-center-12036378
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Petition created on June 21, 2026