The Tracker
Data center lawsuits, tracked
Every major legal fight between communities and data centers, reported from court records, filings, and primary news coverage. Where a dispute never became a lawsuit, we say so; the no-suit stories often teach the most.
- Active litigationWisconsin
The Microsoft Fairwater Noise Class Action: 1,000 Households Take On a Hyperscale AI Campus
Three Sturtevant, Wisconsin residents filed a 2026 class action over noise from Microsoft's 1.2 million square foot Fairwater data center in Mount Pleasant, seeking to represent everyone within 1.5 miles, more than 1,000 households. Per reporting, it is the first noise class action against a hyperscale AI data center. What the case claims, why it matters, and what class membership means for residents.
Private nuisance (noise) · Class action
- Active litigationMississippi
NAACP v. xAI: The Clean Air Act Fight Over Colossus's Gas Turbines
The NAACP, represented by SELC and Earthjustice, is suing xAI in federal court over 27 allegedly unpermitted gas turbines powering the Colossus 2 data center in Southaven, Mississippi, after a parallel permit fight in Memphis. Status, stakes, and what it means for data center neighbors everywhere.
Clean Air Act citizen suit · Unpermitted major source operation
- Active litigationVirginia
Louisa County Homeowner v. Amazon: Brown Well Water, Dust, and Noise Reach the Courthouse
In late July 2026, a Louisa County, Virginia homeowner sued Amazon over data center campus construction, alleging brown and contaminated well water, dust, and loud noise, under nuisance, negligence, and property damage theories. It is one of the first individual homeowner damage suits against a hyperscaler in Virginia. What the case claims and what neighbors with similar problems should document.
Private nuisance · Negligence · Property damage
- Active litigationVirginia
The Prince William Digital Gateway Lawsuit: How a Notice Defect Voided the World's Biggest Data Center Project
Preservationists and Oak Valley residents sued Prince William County in January 2024 over the Digital Gateway rezonings. A circuit judge voided the approvals on defective public notice, the Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed, Compass and the county walked away, and QTS has taken a last appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia. Full history and what it teaches every community fighting a data center.
Zoning and land use challenge · Statutory public notice defects
- Active litigationGeorgia
Coweta County's Project Sail Lawsuit: Residents Sue to Void a $17 Billion Data Center Rezoning
Seventeen Coweta County residents, farmers, and landowners are suing the county and Atlas Development LLC to void the rezoning of rural conservation land for a $17 billion hyperscale data center campus near Sargent Road. The suit says the county broke its own rules and Georgia rezoning law. Status, claims, and what it means for neighbors.
Zoning and land use · Violation of county procedural rules · Violation of state rezoning law
- Active litigationMissouri
Festus, Missouri: The Sunshine Law Lawsuit Over a $6 Billion Data Center
Wake Up JeffCo and four property owners filed a 12-count, 54-page lawsuit against the City of Festus and developer CRG over a $6 billion data center, alleging Missouri Sunshine Law violations including serial private briefings and a development agreement released the Friday before a Monday vote. The suit seeks to void the rezoning and the development contract.
Missouri Sunshine Law (open meetings and records) · Zoning and land use · Void the development agreement
- Active litigationTexas
The Granbury Noise Lawsuits: The Texas Cases Writing the Playbook for AI Data Center Noise Claims
Granbury, Texas residents, represented by Earthjustice, sued Marathon Digital Holdings in October 2024 over 24/7 fan noise from the bitcoin mine at the Wolf Hollow power plant, documenting migraines, tinnitus, and sleep loss. A separate federal complaint by nine Hood County property owners followed in May 2026, seeking more than $1 million. Both cases are pending, and together they are the precedent engine for AI data center noise litigation.
Private nuisance · Negligence · Intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Active litigationVirginia
Citizens for Fauquier County v. Town of Warrenton: The Three Year Fight Over Amazon's Warrenton Data Center
Citizens for Fauquier County and ten residents sued the Town of Warrenton in March 2023 over a 4-3 council approval of a 220,000 square foot Amazon data center, arguing the underlying 2021 zoning text amendment was improperly adopted and the permit is void. After a March 2026 trial and final arguments in June, the case awaits a ruling from Judge Stephen Sincavage.
Zoning and land use challenge · Improperly adopted zoning text amendment
- Regulatory fightOhio
The Ohio Data Center Electric Rate Fight: Who Pays for the Grid AI Is Demanding?
In July 2025, Ohio regulators ordered AEP Ohio to create a data center tariff requiring 25 MW+ customers to pay for at least 85 percent of their subscribed capacity for 12 years. The Ohio Manufacturers' Association appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court in November 2025, and a coalition including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft is challenging the tariff as discriminatory. There is no consumer class action; here is what the tariff protects residents from and how ratepayers can engage.
Utility rate allocation · Regulatory tariff challenge
- Active litigationWisconsin
The Port Washington Lawsuits: An Environmental Review Reversal and Closed-Door Negotiations Over the Vantage Data Center
Two linked lawsuits challenge the Vantage data center in Port Washington, Wisconsin: Sierra Club v. Wisconsin DNR, filed July 2026 over the agency's reversal on requiring a full environmental impact statement, and Great Lakes Neighbors United v. Port Washington Common Council, an open meetings suit over extended closed sessions negotiating the developer agreement. Both are pending.
Environmental review (EIS challenge) · Open meetings law
- Dispute, no suit filedGeorgia
Meta's Georgia Data Center and the Wells That Went Bad: The Biggest Water Story With No Lawsuit
Homeowners near Meta's Stanton Springs data center on the Newton and Morgan county line report failed, sediment-filled wells, and the facility uses roughly 500,000 gallons of water a day. No lawsuit has been filed as of the latest reporting. Here is what is actually documented, what Meta says, and what residents with similar facts can evaluate with a lawyer.
Potential private nuisance (unfiled) · Potential negligence (unfiled) · Potential property damage claims (unfiled)
- SettledMichigan
Saline Township v. the $7 Billion Data Center: When the Developer Is the One Who Sues
Saline Township, Michigan denied rezoning for a $7 billion, 1.4 gigawatt OpenAI/Oracle data center campus in September 2025. Developer Related Digital and landowners sued the township for exclusionary zoning under the Michigan Constitution, and the township settled for roughly $14 million in community benefits. A resident's Open Meetings Act challenge to the settlement was denied in February 2026. The case is the clearest warning that developers sue too.
Exclusionary zoning (Michigan Constitution) · Open Meetings Act (resident intervention, denied)
- DismissedArizona
Project Blue in Pima County: The Open Meetings Suit Over a Data Center Tucson Rejected
After the Tucson City Council rejected the $3.6 billion Project Blue data center campus in August 2025, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a roughly 300 acre land sale for $20.875 million plus rezoning. Opponents sued the county in January 2026 alleging open meeting law violations, including an undisclosed rezoning purpose and land sale negotiations kept secret from 2023 to 2025. The Superior Court dismissed the case in April 2026; plaintiffs say they will appeal.
Open meeting law violations · Challenge to land sale and rezoning process
- DismissedAlabama
Bessemer's Project Marvel Lawsuit: How a Dismissed Case Still Forced a Do-Over
Homeowners near Rock Mountain Lake Road sued Bessemer, Alabama in April 2025 over the rezoning for Project Marvel, a $14.5 billion, 18-building data center campus. A TRO blocked the council vote, the city restarted the process, and the case was dismissed by joint stipulation on June 22, 2026. What the case won even in losing.
Arbitrary and capricious spot zoning · Disclosure of records reviewed by councilors · Zoning and land use
- SettledOregon
The Dalles v. The Oregonian: The Case That Made Google's Water Use Public
In 2021 the City of The Dalles, Oregon sued its own newspaper to keep Google's water use secret as a trade secret. The December 2022 settlement released ten years of records showing Google used about 29 percent of the city's water, paid the paper's legal fees, and ended Google's site-level water secrecy nationwide. Why this settled case still matters to every data center neighbor.
Public records law · Trade secret exemption claim
- Dispute, no suit filedVirginia
Great Oak v. the Hum: How Manassas Neighbors Beat Amazon Data Center Noise Without Filing a Lawsuit
Roughly 300 homes in the Great Oak neighborhood of Manassas, Virginia sit about 600 feet from AWS data centers that began generating constant mechanical noise in 2022. Residents documented likely exceedances of the county's 60 dB daytime ordinance, and sustained pressure plus county-backed noise studies produced Amazon engineering fixes that cut roughly 10 dB. No lawsuit was ever filed. What ordinance pressure can win, and when a lawsuit becomes the next step.
Local noise ordinance enforcement (no suit filed)
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