Rubix Ashland Works Data Center Campus

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Rubix Ashland Works Data Center Campus in Russell, Greenup County, Kentucky is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record, and no lawsuit has been filed so far. The City of Russell passed a six-month moratorium on the construction and operation of data centers within city limits in June 2026.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: contested means active public debate is on record, with hearings, petitions, or organized opposition, without litigation.

The City of Russell passed a six-month moratorium on the construction and operation of data centers within city limits in June 2026. Rubix answered a city due-diligence questionnaire and scheduled a public meeting with county officials and residents.

Source: Route Fifty / Kentucky Lantern

Power and water

Rubix says the data center would use approximately 55 million gallons of water annually; Route Fifty notes the Russell Water Company produces over 500 million gallons annually. No cooling method has been identified in the cited reporting, so coolingType is left unset.

Notes on the record

Proposed on roughly 425 acres of the former AK Steel Ashland Works brownfield (now Cleveland-Cliffs property) along the Ohio River; reporting says the majority of the project area falls inside the City of Russell in Greenup County, with the remainder in Boyd County. Rubix Data Centers is a subsidiary of Barcelona-based Submer Group. Infrastructure investment is reported as a range of $8 to 12 billion, so no single investmentUsd figure is asserted. The company says construction would employ thousands and the operating facility 200 people at an average salary of $125,000, and that Russell could expect tens of millions of dollars in local property tax revenue. Coordinates are the Russell city centroid and are approximate, the mapped Ashland Works footprint extends east into Boyd County, roughly 3 km from this pin. Separate from, and roughly twice the size of, the TeraWulf Muskie campus already tracked at EastPark in the same corner of the state.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• Hanging Rock / Haverhill Data Center · Hanging Rock · Strata Expense (backed by Supermicro + Ravel)6 mi · Under construction · Contested
• TeraWulf Muskie Data Campus (EastPark) · Ashland · TeraWulf9 mi · Proposed · 1 GW · Mixed reception
• Project Dazzler · Franklin Furnace · Google11 mi · Permitted · In litigation
• Alpha Technologies Huntington Headquarters Data Center · Huntington · Alpha Technologies16 mi · Under construction
• Ebon International Big Sandy Cryptomining Complex · Louisa · Ebon International28 mi · Cancelled · 250 MW

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