A Billion-Dollar Data Center… and a Two-Well Subdivision? You Can’t Be Serious.
If someone told you they were planning to run a bullet train on garden tracks, you’d probably smile politely and then back away slowly. Yet here we are, watching serious proposals emerge to serve Microsoft’s future billion-dollar data center with water and sewer systems barely qualified to serve a cul-de-sac potluck.
Let’s start with Granger Water.
This outfit operates two residential-scale wells—yes, two—serving a small subdivision of about 30 homes. These wells weren’t built for industrial load. They weren’t even built for commercial capacity. They’re glorified backyard spigots. Asking them to hydrate a hyper-scale data center is like trying to run a marathon in flip-flops—doable only in the realm of fantasy.
Now enter the St. Joseph County water and sewer “territory,” which we’ll loosely define as a collection of pipe dreams, political maps, and the occasional manhole cover. Serving fewer than a hundred customers, it boasts no real sewer system, no staff, and—perhaps most impressively—no clear operational oversight.
What it does have is a Rube Goldberg machine of a sewer collection pathway: a small local network that essentially catapults sewage on a grand tour—north to Ottawa Township, into Edwardsburg, Michigan, and then back down to the Elkhart Wastewater Treatment Plant in Indiana.
So, to recap: the sewage leaves Indiana, visits Michigan, and returns to Indiana before it’s treated. That’s not a utility system. That’s a bizarre travel itinerary. It’s a bridge to nowhere… with tolls.
This is not how you run a railroad. And it’s certainly not how you support a facility where downtime is measured in dollars per second.
Microsoft is investing in the future of digital infrastructure. That kind of investment demands real infrastructure—scalable systems, experienced professionals, and proven municipal utilities with 24/7 operations, redundancy, and emergency response.
Mishawaka has all of that. We have municipal water and wastewater systems built to handle industry. We have a full-time, professional Fire Department. We have staff, oversight, and the ability to deliver—not just promise.
Serving a billion-dollar data center with a two-well subdivision and a sewage slingshot through three jurisdictions? That’s not bold. That’s just absurd.
It’s time to stop pretending that patchwork can power progress.
Mishawaka is ready. The others are still searching for the on switch.
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