SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Opponents of the Valara data center took their objections to the street again Saturday, as nearly 30 residents protested the project now rising on South Pine Street southeast of downtown Spartanburg.
Protesters pointed to water use, air quality and what they described as a lack of public input on the roughly $3 billion computing campus and its private power plant. The project first surfaced in 2025 as a $2.8 billion proposal called Project MOC-1.
Water has been a flashpoint. In September, NorthMark Compute and Cloud estimated that once fully built, the campus could use about 1.2 million gallons a day on average, well over twice the figure it gave earlier.
Spartanburg County Council has since adopted a 12-month pause on most new data center projects, but the moratorium does not reach Valara because construction was already underway. A lawsuit that challenged how the county classified the project was dismissed by a judge in October.
On Thursday, council gave first-reading approval to a development agreement for the South Pine Street site. It sets new rules for landscaping, lighting and noise and gives the county tools to enforce them. Council also passed a resolution that asks South Carolina’s Department of Environmental Services to put another air monitor in eastern Spartanburg County.
Two more readings are needed before the agreement is final.
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