Quantica starts phase 1 of Yellowstone data center

Quantica Infrastructure has started the first phase of construction on its Yellowstone County data center project, beginning with access roads and a well on the nearly 8-square-mile property outside Broadview.

Postcards sent to nearby residents said the company began staging equipment on the site in early September. According to the mailer, workers began the initial on-site work earlier this month, and drilling for the well could begin "as early as the end of September", the mailer stated.

The project, known as the Big Sky Campus, would be among the largest in the world as currently planned. It has also drawn intense public opposition, with critics packing county commission meetings to boo commissioners and press for action.

Opponents have pursued legal avenues in an effort to gain some control over the project, including a recent push for interim zoning that would pause development for further study. But Yellowstone County officials have resisted that step. Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito advised commissioners against interim zoning, saying county action to stop the project would prompt a lawsuit and could expose taxpayers to substantial fines.

Water use and aquifer concerns

Some opponents have raised concerns that the data center could reduce local water supplies used by residents and agriculture. Quantica has said it plans to draw water from the Madison Aquifer, which it described as "underutilized" and located 1,300 feet deeper than the Eagle Aquifer used by homes and businesses in the Broadview area.

The company estimates the project will need up to 150,000 gallons of water per day during construction and 20,000 gallons each day once operational. The article said that is approximately what a 100-room hotel uses each day at full occupancy, according to the California Hotel and Lodging Association.

Quantica plans to use a closed-loop cooling system that circulates liquid near hot computer servers, transferring heat to cooling equipment. The system uses less water than some other cooling methods but more electricity.

Jon Reiten, a retired Montana Tech professor and expert on Eastern Montana hydrology, said the deeper aquifer should not affect the shallower one if the work is properly completed.

"And it’s going to be completely cemented and cased off", Reiten said of the well. "If everything is done properly, there should not be a problem. That should not affect the shallower wells that are in that area."

Reiten said water from the Madison Aquifer is warmer, likely more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and that Quantica could use a cooling pond for the well water. He also said the water is salty, which can corrode equipment, citing the Signal Peak coal mine in Roundup, where a well taps the same aquifer.

To use that water, Reiten said, reverse osmosis filtration would be needed, creating concentrated discharge.

"So whatever they’re disposing of, and how they do that, again can be done, but it’s very costly, and if they just dump it on the ground up there, it’s not going to be good", he said.

Labor and community response

Quantica has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Southeastern Montana Building and Construction Trades Council to use local, unionized labor when possible. Riley McCauley, vice president of the council, said job and wage details will not be available until Quantica secures an "end user", or a digital or AI company, to purchase the facility.

Quantica spokesperson Travis Hall declined to identify the company handling the well work, saying only that it is an "experienced environmental and engineering services firm in Billings."

Hall said local reaction to the start of construction was favorable.

"The vast majority of the Broadview community has welcomed the newest development of the company’s infrastructure project, and the company remains committed to being a good neighbor and working closely with Broadview residents as the project moves forward", Hall wrote in an email to Montana Free Press.

The debate in Broadview comes as concern about data centers’ environmental impact appears to be growing across party lines. A poll of roughly 3,500 Americans found that the share of Republicans who said they were "extremely or very" worried about AI’s environmental impact rose from 36% in 2025 to 42% this year. Among Democrats, that figure increased from 49% last year to 65% this year. The poll’s margin of error was 2.2 percentage points, and it was conducted in August by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

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