Bolivar City Council members spent part of their meeting this week weighing whether to pursue a moratorium on data centers, ultimately deciding to hold off on any formal action while they study what such a facility could mean for the small Hardeman County community. Mayor Julian McTizic told council members that an inquiry had come in about a potential data center at the city's industrial complex, but it never led to a property sale.
The discussion, first reported by Action News 5, centered on how a data center could affect Bolivar, a city that sits along the Hatchie River. McTizic said multiple people have expressed interest in coming to the community, but he was careful to clarify that he personally has not recruited data centers to town. Rather than pass a moratorium outright, the council agreed to take no immediate action while committing to further study of what a data center in the community would actually look like.
Residents Pressed on Costs and Environmental Risk
Some community members in attendance raised questions about the potential financial and environmental effects a data center could bring, according to the station's report. Councilwoman Caroline Miller focused on the city's water, describing the Hatchie River as an important local resource that deserves protection. “We have water and, you know, we want to maintain that. We want to honor that,” Miller said.
City leaders said they want to stay ahead of the issue by being transparent and keeping residents informed before any property changes hands, framing the planned studies as a way to get ahead of interest in the community rather than react after a deal is already done. Despite the concerns raised, no members of the public actually spoke when given the chance to address the council directly, per the same account.
What's At Stake for Bolivar's Water Supply
The water question matters locally because of what's already flowing through Bolivar's pipes. Bolivar Utility says it delivers drinking water to more than 2,800 customers in and around the city, drawing from four deep wells roughly 615 feet down that can supply 1.2 million gallons of drinking water per day. The utility also supplies water to all of Spring Creek Utility District's customers from its plant, meaning any new large-scale water user would be drawing from a system that already serves a wide swath of the county.
The dossier does not quantify how much water a prospective Bolivar data center might actually use, and no specific company, project, or site has been identified beyond the inquiry McTizic described. Statewide, though, the numbers tied to the industry are large. The Tennessean reports that hyperscale data centers nationwide are estimated by the U.S. Department of Energy to use roughly 15.8 billion to 32.7 billion gallons of water by 2028, part of a broader set of concerns the paper says has driven Tennessee communities toward moratoriums and zoning ordinances over electricity demand, water use, noise, air pollution and a lack of transparency, as detailed by The Tennessean.
Bolivar Joins a Statewide Wave of Caution
Bolivar is far from alone in pumping the brakes. The Tennessean counts roughly 60 data centers spread across 10 markets statewide, while a separate count from The Courier Journal puts the figure at about 65 facilities of varying sizes — the two outlets don't reconcile the discrepancy. The Courier Journal also reports that the Tennessee Valley Authority once cited about 11,000 megawatts of electricity requests from data centers and tech companies, a figure TVA now calls outdated without offering a replacement number, according to The Courier Journal.
TVA itself says data centers already account for roughly 18% to 20% of its industrial electricity demand, a share projected to double by 2030, the same Tennessean report notes. Part of the pressure stems from patchy oversight: a Sycamore Institute analysis cited by the paper found that nearly half of Tennessee's 95 counties had not adopted countywide zoning regulations as of 2025, leaving many local governments scrambling to write rules as proposals arrive.
Other towns have moved faster than Bolivar. Just this past week, the Dade County Board of Commissioners in Georgia unanimously approved a 90-day moratorium on new data-center development, giving officials time to draft regulations and residents time to voice concerns after an Atlanta-based company began exploring a 300-megawatt facility there, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. In Greeneville, planning commissioners approved a process for developing data-center regulations in October and asked the town attorney to review a potential moratorium, with a six-month pause expected to go before the full city council, per WGRV.
Tennessee communities including McMinnville, Coffee County, Knox County, Cedar Hill, Washington County, Grundy County, Johnson City, Jonesborough, Hamilton County and Bristol have already enacted moratoriums lasting one to two years, while Nashville and Gallatin are weighing similar pauses, The Tennessean reports. The stakes of inaction have shown up elsewhere too — The Courier Journal notes community pushback near the Nashville Zoo and in Lawrenceburg, plus a Memphis council meeting that was shut down by chaotic protests during a moratorium debate. For now, Bolivar's path remains undecided, with city leaders choosing study over an immediate vote as they watch how neighboring communities handle the same questions.
