Site portrait

Conway

Conway, Arkansas · announced

Independent observatory

Site grade

probable grade · window B–D

Rated C on site, but E on “Energy”.

This page says the same thing as the technical sheet, in the order of a decision to take: what weighs, what is missing, and what is still worth asking for while it can still be asked.

Annotated aerial view of Conway: footprint, watercourse and distances — Straight-line distances from the reference coordinate. The rings are distance buffers, not statutory zoning. Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics · OpenStreetMap (ODbL)

The five pillars behind the grade

Energy 2 of 6 measures E
Water 2 of 4 measures C
Land & biodiversity 2 of 7 measures B
Local impact 0 of 7 measures –
Transparency & governance 0 of 2 measures –

A pillar with no letter rests on too few measures to defend one. We publish the count rather than a letter we could not stand behind.

The points that will decide

Water

Water body status : water body in bad status
Local water stress : no measured water stress in the area

To ask for : Which cooling technology, and how much water a year — into an already impaired watercourse? to ask now, before the application is filed

Energy

Local grid carbon intensity : 335.5 gCO2e/kWh
Grid congestion / connection queue : heavy local grid congestion

To ask for : What PUE is announced, and measured how? to ask now, before the application is filed

Land & biodiversity

Overlap / distance to protected areas : no protected natural area on record within 5 km, to our knowledge
Soil status (artificialized / natural / agricultural) : previously developed land

To ask for : What ground footprint, and on which parcels? to ask now, before the application is filed

What this looks like from the street

Noise — continuous, day and night

Cooling runs permanently and standby generators are tested on a schedule. What is regulated is not a distance but how far the noise rises at the neighbour's.

We hold neither a nearest-dwelling distance nor an acoustic study for this site. Both are obtainable: the study is a document in the file.

Standby generators and their fuel

A facility like this keeps standby generators and the tanks that feed them. They are what gets tested, what gets smelled, and what triggers its own permitting. Their number, their fuel and the volume stored are in the file where one exists.

We measure no health effect and we do not claim to. We publish what is in the file, and what is not.

What we have not measured

Grid connection capacity / proximitynot yet collected by us
Heat-network connectabilityverified absent from the file we read
Basin withdrawal pressurenot yet collected by us
Ecological corridors (TVB)verified absent from the file we read
Municipality socio-economic profilenot yet collected by us
Absorption capacity (project size vs municipality)verified absent from the file we read
Technological hazard / nearby Seveso sitesnot yet collected by us
Observed level of oppositionverified absent from the file we read
Elected officials' position (voted facts only)verified absent from the file we read

These gaps are ours, not the developer's: they say where our measurement stops, and they do not penalise the site.

Where the procedure stands

announced
under review
under construction
operating

the town or county that zones the land

Any record held by the town, the county or the development agency — impact study, tax-assistance application, acoustic study — is obtained by a written request under the state's public-records law. The deadline: if the record is in active use or storage and therefore unavailable when a citizen asks to examine it, the custodian must certify that IN WRITING and set a date and hour within three working days.

A.C.A. § 25-19-105(e), reproduit intégralement en annexe du manuel FOIA du procureur général de l'Arkansas (22e éd., 2026)

What to get written into the approval

To ask for : Which cooling technology, and how much water a year — into an already impaired watercourse? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : What PUE is announced, and measured how? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : Will the waste heat be recovered, by whom, and from which phase? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : What ground footprint, and on which parcels? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : Which avoidance, reduction and offset measures? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : Is the land already designated for development in a supra-municipal plan? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : Does the planning document have to be changed for this project? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : How many permanent jobs after construction, and of what skill level? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : What tax revenue for the municipality, over what period, with what abatements? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : What consultation is planned, on what date, and who answers it? to ask now, before the application is filed
To ask for : Is the full file open to consultation, where, and until when? to ask now, before the application is filed

Commitments that are not in the approval cannot be enforced: what is not written cannot be demanded later.

↔ Technical sheet — the measures one by one, their values and their sources