reSee.it Video Transcript AI Summary
Miley Kaczynski, a lifelong Wisconsin resident living 1.6 miles downstream from the Meta Data Center in Beaver Dam, describes dramatic changes to a natural creek on her horse farm that have followed upstream construction. The creek, a 20-foot-wide, up-to-four-feet-deep waterway, had flowed reliably for decades as part of a connected system feeding into Beaver Dam Lake, until construction began upstream. Since then, the creek has stopped flowing even without rainfall, often returning only during brief wet periods, and when it does flow, it is sometimes cloudy and erodes the banks. This pattern has repeated dozens of times over a single construction season, leaving the creek dry half the time. Dust from construction covers her yard, turning grass white, and heavy dust plumes make her unable to see the hood of her truck while driving past the site. She notes this behavior is not consistent with natural variability or weather patterns and had never happened before.
Kaczynski attempted to report these concerns to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), but found the system fragmented: reports are passed between departments and some are lost. She learned there is no single entity responsible for downstream impacts when large-scale construction disrupts a water system. Different permits govern activities locally, at the county and state levels, and some at the federal level. She emphasizes that this is a policy failure, not a failure of individual agency staff. She asserts that the law favors businesses over residents and that the creek’s flow appears correlated with upstream industrial activity, including daily blasting with dynamite during construction. When that discharge stops, the creek stops; when it resumes, water returns abruptly.
Kaczynski highlights that corporations receive fast approvals and tax incentives with limited review, while residents must prove damage after the fact, at their own expense, against billion-dollar companies. She has spent significant time researching this issue (ten to twenty hours per week) and has faced high costs for water testing on her property (shipping a sample costs $121, with the test around $400 per test). Her property shows elevated strontium and other indicators consistent with deep groundwater influence, changes that coincide with upstream blasting and excavation, warranting independent investigation. If left unresolved, filters and additional testing could cost over $1,000, and her backyard footprint will be converted from permeable land to a paved industrial space of nearly 1,000 acres after construction.
She explains the broader community impact: rural farmers and families cannot compete with corporate land purchases, leading to a loss of Wisconsin’s working landscapes as new projects fill in. A second data center is proposed in Beaver Dam. The city annexed land from her township, with Alliant Energy negotiating with farmers to sell collectively; once annexed by the city, rezoning proceeds to county oversight and is described as a rubber-stamp process. By the time residents learn it is a data center, it is too late to stop it. Township residents feel unrepresented—she lacks a representative at the city level, cannot legally prove damage before construction, and is left to navigate a system that she says is not prepared to protect residents.
Kaczynski asks who will save her and others, noting that retroactive bills and a missing safety net leave them vulnerable. She ends by urging transparency and action, expressing gratitude for the hearing but lamenting that her full story has not been heard.