Vanderburgh County Data Center Research Committee Meeting – October 20, 2026

The Vanderburgh County Data Center Research Committee held its fourth meeting on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, from 1:00 PM to 3:06 PM in Room 301 of the Civic Center Complex in Evansville, Indiana. Chair Lloyd Lamberton presided. Members discussed public communications, their research activities, the committee’s process for developing recommendations, the South Bend/Amazon wastewater permit, and plans for an evening public comment session. The committee approved prior minutes, made several procedural decisions, and heard comments from two community members.

Attendance and Consent Calendar

• Roll call: Present were Tom Shetler Jr., Lloyd Lamberton, Lauren Lynch, John Diekhoff, Mark Murry, Richard Reed, Jason Naab, Scott Ambrose, and Jon Robertson. Absent were Susan Hardwick, Jenna Richardt, John Bates, and Chaitanya Mamidala.
• With Secretary Jenna Richardt absent, Lauren Lynch agreed to record the minutes as substitute secretary.
• The committee approved the September 29, 2026 meeting minutes with emailed edits on a voice vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Nicole Chandler, a Vanderburgh County resident and environmental nonprofit employee, asked a clarifying question about the recommendation pathway and was told the committee reports to the County Commissioners, who will work with the Area Plan Commission on an ordinance. She expressed support for an after-hours public comment period, recommended prohibiting behind-the-meter gas plants as Posey County did, recommended requiring data centers to identify proprietary chemicals used in cooling and wastewater systems, and suggested taking noise/frequency measurements at existing Evansville data centers. She noted those existing facilities are not hyperscale and, in her view, have among the most diesel generators on site in the state. She also suggested Just Transition Northwest Indiana as a resource.
• Margaret Connelly, an Evansville citizen, endorsed the evening public comment session because many residents cannot attend afternoon meetings. She urged caution because, in her experience, data centers have not always followed through on agreements; raised regional Ohio River pollution concerns; emphasized noise impacts on nearby residents; asked the committee to avoid recommendations that raise utility bills; questioned the long-term job benefits; noted there is no guarantee data centers will remain; and advised caution about small modular nuclear reactors.

Discussion Items

Public Communications and Email Process

• Chair Lamberton raised concerns about public emails being commingled with committee and research emails. The committee decided to keep the public email address, DCResearch@VanderburghGov.org, and to ask IT about routing public emails to a separate folder. Members agreed to respond to public emails as an agenda item at each meeting, and Jon Robertson volunteered to collate the comments into categories for the next meeting.

Committee Member Research Activities

• Members reported research activities, including meeting with the Evansville Water & Sewer Utility director, contacting IDEM and other communities, reaching out to the City of South Bend about its AWS facility, reviewing ordinances, talking with fire departments in several states, and collecting resources on the committee SharePoint site.
• Chair Lamberton said he met with the EWSU director and asked him to attend a future meeting; the director has conflicts with Tuesday afternoons. He also contacted the IDEM pretreatment coordinator and said four communities responded to outreach about data center experience.
• Noise research was discussed at length, including decibel and low-frequency measurements, acoustic baselines, site-specific standards, backup-generator testing limits, and possible continuous noise monitoring paid for by the developer. One member discussed the XAI facility in Memphis as an example of temporary turbine noise becoming a persistent problem.
• The committee approved, by voice vote, a motion by Mark Murry and a second by Scott Ambrose to share the SharePoint resource library with City Council and Area Plan staff on a read-only basis. Tom Shetler advised that sources should be shown for each resource.

Deliberation Process and Deliverable

• Lauren Lynch said the committee should focus first on potential impacts and benefits, and only later on ordinance language; several members agreed.
• The committee discussed how to vote on its deliverable to the County Commissioners. It reached consensus that members will select topic or topics in their area of expertise, present research on benefits and impacts, recommend ordinance language based on best practices, and the committee will vote item by item by majority. The final deliverable will be a report with recommendations and suggested ordinance language. Votes can be tallied, and multiple options may be included on contested points. Chair Lamberton said he was concerned some topics might not be claimed; John Diekhoff observed that not every topic needs the same level of research.

AWS Industrial Discharge Permit – South Bend

• Chair Lamberton reviewed the Industrial Discharge Permit issued by the City of South Bend for Amazon Data Services. He explained that Indiana has roughly 35-40 delegated pretreatment authorities, that Evansville Water & Sewer Utility sets limits based on a load study, and that in his opinion EWSU’s pretreatment program protects the publicly owned treatment works and, through the NPDES permit, the Ohio River. He noted data centers are not categorical industrial users, so limits would be set at the local level, and that EWSU already monitors industrial dischargers.
• He also noted that South Bend reported the AWS facility was nowhere near its estimated discharge volume, and that the design of flow measurement matters for accuracy.

Evening Public Comment Session

• The committee agreed to hold an additional public comment meeting in the evening so more residents can attend. The preferred options are November 10 or November 17, 2026, from 5:00-6:30 PM, subject to room and security availability. Speakers will sign in and receive up to three minutes to comment. Lauren Lynch will coordinate with the County Commissioners office.

Susan Hardwick Comments / Ordinance Outline

• The committee tabled discussion of Susan Hardwick’s comments on the Outline for Data Center Ordinance Amendment Proposals because members were not ready to review general ordinance language before completing impact research.

Key Outcomes

• Approved the September 29, 2026 minutes with edits by voice vote.
• Approved read-only sharing of the committee’s SharePoint resources with City Council and Area Plan staff.
• Agreed on an item-by-item majority-vote process for recommendations and a report deliverable to the County Commissioners.
• Directed Jon Robertson to collate public emails into categorized agenda items for the next meeting.
• Agreed to schedule an evening public comment meeting, likely November 10 or November 17, 2026, from 5:00-6:30 PM, with 3-minute comments.
• Tabled the ordinance outline comments.
• Adjourned at 3:06 PM by voice vote.
• Remaining action items included having members prepare topic materials, continuing data center site and topic discussions, preparing an impact-review template, refining definitions, and coordinating IT access for City Council and Area Plan staff.
• Upcoming calendar items from the agenda: October 27, November 10, November 17, December 8 public comment meeting and committee discussion, and December 15 final vote on recommendations to the Commissioners.

Note

• The agenda and minutes body identify the meeting date as October 20, 2026, and the transcript begins at 1:00 PM on that date, although the minutes document footer repeats the prior meeting’s September 29, 2026 date. The transcript also spells the second public speaker’s name Connolly, while the minutes spell it Connelly.