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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 29010

Bishopville

Lee

None found / resident-reportedZIP 60.9% Blackpop 11,564

None found — no data center proposed, approved, or built in Bishopville / Lee County, SC as of 2026-08-02. Resident-reported pin, no corroborating public source

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-05-29) · ZIP demographics: 60.9% Black, pop 11,564 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Lee (~62% Black) Status: None found — no data center proposed, approved, or built in Bishopville / Lee County, SC as of 2026-08-02. Resident-reported pin, no corroborating public source found.

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

Bishopville is the seat of Lee County, one of South Carolina's poorest and Blackest rural counties (~62% Black), on the I-20 corridor in the Pee Dee/Midlands. As of 2026-08-02 there is no public record of any data center — proposed, approved, or operating — in Bishopville or Lee County, SC. The map pin appears to be resident-reported only; searches of local news (The Item/Sumter, Lee County Observer), the county and city sites, and state economic-development announcements surface solar farms, not data centers. That silence is the finding: Lee County has the profile developers target (cheap rural land, I-20 access, a "pro-business" reputation, existing industrial parks), and neighboring Pee Dee counties (Marion, Colleton) have already been hit — so residents should know who to call before a quiet vote, not after. Caution: do not confuse this with Lee County, North Carolina (Sanford), which has an active, contested PointeOne/Trustwell data-center fight — a different state.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

  • No data-center facility identified in Lee County / ZIP 29010. None found as of 2026-08-02.
  • What does exist locally is utility-scale solar: Southern Current launched multiple Lee County solar projects (~$100M across five projects), and Bishopville Solar II, LLC is an operating PV farm (~50,000 MWh/yr, ~3,000 homes). Solar is a different land use from a hyperscale data center, but it shows the county actively courting energy/industrial development.
  • Land-use setup to watch: Lee County has two industrial parks near the I-20 exits and a self-described "pro-business" posture with regional recruiting — the exact conditions that attract data centers elsewhere in the Pee Dee.
  • Resident-reported only — no public source found as of 2026-08-02.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • No data-center hearing, rezoning, permit, or incentive vote found on Lee County or City of Bishopville records as of 2026-08-02. None found.
  • Statewide context residents should track: the SC General Assembly's 2025–26 data-center bills — H.4087 (phasing out the sales-tax exemption and proposing a one-year local-incentive moratorium) and S.5286 (a proposed statewide approval moratorium to Jan 1, 2028). Neither is a Lee County action; both would govern any future proposal.
  • If a project ever appears, it would surface first on a Lee County Council agenda or a Bishopville City Council agenda (contacts in §8).

3. Power

No data-center load is proposed, so there is no interconnection or large-load agreement to report. None found as of 2026-08-02. For general context, the Bishopville/Lee County area is broadly Duke Energy Progress and cooperative (Black River Electric / Lynches River) territory; the state-owned Santee Cooper adopted an experimental large-load rate (50 MW+, pre-paid upgrades) in April 2026 that would apply to any large new customer it served. Watch the SC Public Service Commission for who pays as statewide data-center demand grows.

4. Water & Drought

No data-center water demand to report. None found as of 2026-08-02. Drought: Lee County remained under a moderate drought declaration through July 2026, with ~83% of South Carolina in drought in early July 2026 — relevant if a water-intensive project is ever proposed.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

ZIP 29010 is 60.9% Black, population 11,564; Lee County is ~62% Black and consistently among South Carolina's lowest-income, highest-poverty counties, with a long history of rural disinvestment and population decline. That combination — cheap land, an eager economic-development posture, and a community with limited capacity to monitor fast-moving deals — is precisely why the absence of coverage matters: an unannounced data center could move through with little scrutiny, as happened one county over in Marion.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • No data-center incentive/FILOT deal found. None found as of 2026-08-02.
  • For reference, Lee County has used FILOT and property-tax revenue arrangements for its solar projects (the Bishopville Solar farm is cited as generating property-tax revenue for schools and services). SC's standard data-center package elsewhere pairs a FILOT with sales-tax exemptions on electricity and equipment — the exemption the legislature debated cutting in 2026.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • No data-center-specific coverage or organized opposition found for Lee County, SC. None found as of 2026-08-02.
  • Local outlets to watch: The Item (Sumter, covers Lee County), the Lee County Observer (pmg-sc.com), and regional TV (WLTX Columbia, WPDE/WMBF Pee Dee). Statewide watchdogs on this beat: SC Daily Gazette, The Post and Courier, Southern Environmental Law Center, and the newsletter Carolina Ecology.

8. Find Out For Yourself

Lee County government / County Council — Lee County Courthouse, 123 S. Main Street, Bishopville, SC 29010 (mailing: PO Box 309). Main phone (803) 484-5341. County Council meets in the Main Court Room, Lee County Courthouse — confirm date/time with the county office; minutes at leecountysc.org → County Council. Ask whether any data-center inquiry, NDA, or industrial-park marketing is underway. City of Bishopville — City Hall, 135 E. Church Street, Bishopville, SC 29010; (803) 484-5948 (M–F 8–5). City Council meets 1st Tuesday. Ask the Municipal Clerk about any rezoning or utility requests tied to large computing/industrial users. Regional economic development — TheLINK Economic Development Alliance (serves Lee County/Bishopville) has publicized past energy projects; ask what industrial prospects are being recruited. SC PSC / Office of Regulatory Staff — psc.sc.gov ; ors.sc.gov.

Questions worth asking:

  1. Has the county or city signed any nondisclosure agreement with a prospective large industrial/data-center user?
  2. Are the I-20 industrial parks being marketed to data centers, and to which utilities?
  3. Would a data-center vote get the full three-reading, public-hearing process — unlike Marion County's compressed Jan 2026 approval?
  4. What FILOT/tax-exemption terms would the county offer, and what is the net revenue after them?
  5. What water source and withdrawal volume could the county supply, given moderate drought?
  6. How would residents be notified before any approval?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

As of 2026-08-02 there is no data center in or near Bishopville — this is a "watch, don't panic" pin. The honest read: Lee County has the exact profile that draws these projects and sits amid a Pee Dee data-center wave (Marion County one county away), but nothing is proposed here now. If you're moving in, the useful habit is to track county and city agendas for industrial rezonings and FILOT items, and to know that South Carolina's disclosure norms have allowed quiet, fast approvals elsewhere. Water reliability during recurring drought and future statewide power costs are the background risks. All clear — but unmonitored — as of 2026-08-02.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.