At least 65 people logged into a virtual town hall Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, to press Michigan regulators on a plan that would let a massive OpenAI and Oracle data center dump treated wastewater into the Saline River. The meeting, hosted by the state's environmental agency, came just two days before the public comment window on the project's discharge permit was set to close.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy held the session to gather input on a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit the data center needs before it can release treated sanitary wastewater into the river, according to MLive.com. At least 65 people attended, the agency said. The hyperscale campus, still under construction in Saline Township, is nicknamed The Barn and has been valued at $16 billion, the outlet reported, though an earlier MLive report in July put the estimated project value at roughly $43 billion, up from an initial $10 billion figure used in the permit application.
What's Actually Being Built
The Barn campus is planned on the northern side of Michigan Avenue and will include three data center buildings, each measuring 550,000 square feet, along with warehouses and electrical substations, per the same MLive report. The proposed wastewater treatment plant itself sits in the northwest portion of the site, between Willow and Case roads near the Saline River, according to an earlier MLive account of the permit application. That plant would handle sewage from an estimated 450 employees, with an average proposed flow of 15,750 gallons per day — a separate figure from the 20,000 gallons of water per day the facility is expected to use once operations begin, as reported by The Saline Post.
Residents have also raised broader worries about construction traffic safety, rising utility costs, and the project's climate impact.
Who's Watching the River
The permit's self-reporting structure is a central worry for people living along the Saline River, the report states. EGLE officials said enforcement relies on a third party that monitors equipment at the discharge point, along with regular inspections that occur over months or longer — but no monitoring equipment sits in the river itself, the agency acknowledged. Several members of the public at the meeting called for publicly available, real-time monitoring independent of the developers.
Mary Stuczynski told the gathering that EGLE's permitting system was not designed for the era of data centers and that regulators need to weigh the wider context of these projects' impacts, per the MLive account. Nicki Rockentine, who works in geology and environmental consultation, argued that even if an individual discharge meets current standards, the cumulative effect of multiple discharge sources entering a watershed over time deserves careful consideration. No commenters at the Zoom meeting spoke in favor of the data center, the outlet reported, and Oracle and Related Digital did not immediately respond to comment requests.
A Strained Water System
The debate over one data center's wastewater plan is unfolding against a backdrop of aging infrastructure statewide. Michigan earned a C for wastewater management, a D+ for drinking water and a D for stormwater management in a 2023 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, as detailed by Michigan Public. The same report found the state faces an annual water-infrastructure funding gap of $860 million to $1.1 billion due to deferred maintenance. State regulators have said data centers may need permits covering air emissions, water use, wastewater discharge, or impacts to wetlands and streams, and Michigan.gov's environmental assistance FAQ notes that a wastewater discharge permit under an industrial pretreatment program is sometimes, but not always, required for such facilities.
Related Digital, the developer behind the treatment plant proposal, had explored alternatives including groundwater discharge and connections to municipal treatment plants in Saline and Bridgewater Township before settling on the current plan, according to MLive's earlier reporting. Michigan isn't the only state wrestling with how to regulate data center wastewater at scale. Ohio's EPA abandoned a proposed statewide general permit for data center discharges this year after reviewing more than 7,000 public comments, as reported by cleveland.com; facilities there will instead continue going through individual NPDES permitting rather than a blanket statewide approval.
How to Weigh In Before Friday
EGLE is accepting public comment on the Saline permit through Friday, Oct. 23. Written comments can be submitted through the state's online MiEnviro Portal under permit number MI0060445, by email, or by mail to the agency's Water Resources Division in Lansing. With the window closing fast, the turnout at Wednesday's town hall signals just how closely residents along the Saline River are watching what happens next.
