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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 39174

Tougaloo

Madison County

Under constructionZIP 56.6% Blackpop 525

Under construction — a hyperscale AWS campus is being built immediately west of Tougaloo College

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-06-22) · ZIP demographics: 56.6% Black, pop 525 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Madison County, MS Status: Under construction — a hyperscale AWS campus is being built immediately west of Tougaloo College

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

0. Snapshot

ZIP 39174 is one of the smallest ZIP codes in Mississippi — roughly 525 people, essentially the campus and immediate surroundings of Tougaloo College, a historically Black college founded in 1869 on a former plantation and a central organizing site of the Mississippi civil rights movement.

A resident pin here is not a rounding error. Amazon Web Services is building an 786-acre hyperscale data center campus directly west of Tougaloo College, on the "Costas property" at Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road, in the City of Ridgeland at the southern tip of Madison County.

  • Developer/operator: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Site: "Costas" campus — 786 acres (reported elsewhere as ~750 acres) at Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road, Ridgeland, MS 39157, described in reporting as west of Tougaloo College
  • Status: Under construction (early stages as of mid-2026); target completion 2027
  • Investment: part of AWS's $10 billion Madison County commitment (Jan 2024), later expanded — $11 billion additional Madison County expansion announced April 2026; $25 billion statewide
  • Water: ~93 million gallons/year, drawn exclusively from the City of Ridgeland's water system; Amazon investing $37 million in that system to raise capacity 10%
  • Power: Entergy Mississippi. A 754 MW combined-cycle gas plant — Traceview Advanced Power Station — is being built in Ridgeland, coming online 2029
  • Separate project nearby: Prado AI has proposed a Ridgeland-area AI campus with its own 350 MW private gas plant, contested at the Mississippi PSC

The environmental-justice read: Tougaloo College sits on the Jackson/Madison County line. To its east and north is affluent, majority-white Ridgeland and Madison. To its south is Jackson, majority-Black and under federal water receivership. The AWS campus, the new gas plant, and the proposed Prado AI plant are all clustered on this county-line seam — the exact stretch where a historically Black institution and a low-income Black city meet a wealthy suburb. Tougaloo College hosted the July 16, 2026 community organizing session against data centers, which drew 70+ people.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

The AWS "Costas" campus. In January 2024 Amazon Web Services announced a $10 billion investment to build two hyperscale data center campuses in Madison County totaling roughly 1,713 acres. The second of the two is the Costas property:

  • 786 acres (Mississippi Today, Mississippi Free Press) / ~750 acres (The Northside Sun)
  • Located at the corner of Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road, Ridgeland, in the southern tip of Madison County
  • Reporting describes the site as being on the "Costas Property west of Tougaloo College and near County Line Road in Ridgeland"
  • Status: early stages of construction as of mid-2026; targeted completion 2027

Where that puts it relative to Tougaloo. Tougaloo College's campus is at 500 West County Line Road, Jackson, MS 39174 — on the north side of Jackson, straddling the Hinds/Madison county line. The AWS Costas campus occupies land on the same County Line Road corridor immediately to the west. This is not a distant industrial park; it is the same road.

What that means for the 525 residents of ZIP 39174. Students, faculty, staff, and neighbors of Tougaloo will be inside the construction-traffic, dust, and (later) continuous-operation noise envelope of a hyperscale campus, plus — separately — within a few miles of a 754 MW gas-fired power plant.

The second facility: Traceview Advanced Power Station. Entergy Mississippi is building a 754 MW combined-cycle gas turbine plant plus substation in Ridgeland, Madison County, also called the Ridgeland Power Plant, online 2029. It is permitted through MDEQ (air-permit facility record AI 89056). This plant exists to serve data center load.

The third project: Prado AI. Separately, developer Gabriel Prado / Prado AI has proposed an industrial campus in the Ridgeland area with a data center and semiconductor factory powered by a dedicated 350 MW natural gas plant that would serve only the campus and not sell into the open market. Prado filed Mississippi PSC Docket 2026-AD-10 in April 2026 seeking a declaratory ruling that he is not a public utility and does not need a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. Entergy and Mississippi Power both moved to intervene and opposed, with Entergy arguing in an April 13 filing that Prado's customers would meet "the definition of the public." The PSC asked its Public Utilities Staff for input by May 15 and said it would opine by June 1 — but ultimately declined to rule, saying it lacked enough information. Mississippi Today reported June 1, 2026 that the developer plans to proceed anyway.

Exact parcel boundaries and the distance in feet from the Tougaloo College property line to the AWS campus boundary or the Traceview plant: Not found as of 2026-08-02. Madison County's land-records / GIS office and the City of Ridgeland's planning department can produce this — see §8.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

Jurisdiction. The Costas campus is inside the City of Ridgeland, Madison County. Ridgeland's Mayor and Board of Aldermen and its planning/zoning body hold local land-use authority; the Madison County Board of Supervisors holds the fee-in-lieu-of-taxes authority.

Documented actions:

  • January 2024 — AWS $10 billion Madison County announcement covering both campuses. Madison County executed two FILOT agreements, one for the Mega Site (Canton) campus and one for the County Line Road / Ridgeland campus.
  • April 2026 — Amazon announces $11 billion additional Madison County expansion with stated water and power safeguards.
  • March 2, 2026 — Prado AI files with the Mississippi PSC (Docket 2026-AD-10 per Mississippi Today; a March 2 filing date is also reported). Entergy, Mississippi Power and others moved to intervene in late March.
  • April 13, 2026 — Entergy filing opposing Prado AI's non-utility claim.
  • ~June 1, 2026 — PSC declines to rule for lack of information.

Ridgeland meeting schedule (from the city's own site): Mayor and Board of Aldermen meet the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m., with a Work Session the Monday prior. Meetings are in the Board Room at City Hall, 100 W. School Street, Ridgeland, MS. Agendas and minutes are posted at https://www.ridgelandms.org/meetings-and-minutes/.

Upcoming data-center-specific hearings in Ridgeland or Madison County after 2026-08-02: Not found as of 2026-08-02. Watch the Ridgeland agendas page and the Madison County upcoming-agenda page.

Note on Jackson's moratorium — it does not cover this site. Jackson's 183-day data center moratorium (passed July 14, 2026) applies only inside Jackson city limits. Tougaloo College's mailing address is Jackson, but the AWS campus is in Ridgeland, a separate municipality in a separate county. The moratorium does not stop or slow this project.

3. Power

Serving utility: Entergy Mississippi, LLC — regulated by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, Central District (Commissioner De'Keither Stamps).

Load. The two Madison County AWS campuses together were reported to require electricity equivalent to powering roughly 700,000 homes per year.

New generation:

PlantLocationSizeOnline
Traceview Advanced Power Station (Ridgeland Power Plant)Ridgeland, Madison County — the same municipality as the Costas campus754 MW combined-cycle natural gas + substation2029
Delta Blues Advanced Power StationGreenville, Washington County754 MW combined-cycle gas, hydrogen-capable, ~$1.2B2028
Proposed: Prado AI campus plantRidgeland area350 MW dedicated natural gasNot approved; PSC declined to rule

Entergy has also indicated generating facilities planned for Hinds County and for Washington and Tallahatchie counties. A Texas Eastern Line 31 pipeline expansion is in FERC environmental review to fuel this buildout.

The regulatory shortcut. The Mississippi Legislature authorized Entergy to build generation for these projects without a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the PSC. The PSC still sets rates. Amazon states it covers 100% of new energy infrastructure cost, is funding $300 million in Entergy Mississippi grid improvements, and has contracted 616 MW of Mississippi solar and wind. Entergy projects $2 billion+ in customer savings over 20 years.

The counter-argument. Earthjustice's May 2026 report "In the Dark: Data Centers Could be Costing Mississippi Households" contends the large-load agreement terms are not sufficiently public for households to verify who bears what cost. Residents should read it directly and file comments in the relevant PSC dockets. The Earthjustice PDF could not be text-extracted during this research; cited by title/publisher/date/URL only.

4. Water & Drought

AWS Costas campus water: Amazon states it will use water exclusively from the City of Ridgeland, adding approximately 93 million gallons per year, and is investing $37 million into Ridgeland's water system, increasing that system's capacity by 10%.

This is a materially different arrangement from the Canton campus, which uses ~83 million gallons/year of recycled wastewater. The Ridgeland campus is on the potable municipal system.

Why 39174 residents should care about a Ridgeland utility. Tougaloo sits on the boundary between the Ridgeland system and the City of Jackson's system. Jackson's water system — JXN Water — has been under federal receivership since 2022, managed by Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin under U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate. Judge Wingate has required confirmation that JXN Water be included in data center discussions. Tougaloo-area households need to know which system serves their tap, because the two are in very different condition.

Cooling profile: Amazon states ~91% of the year is outside-air cooling; ~9% water cooling.

Aquifer: central Mississippi draws on the Sparta and related aquifers; the Delta draws on the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer. Amazon's Arable partnership targets a 150-million-gallon/year groundwater reduction with Delta farmers — an offset in a different basin, not a local one.

Withdrawal permit numbers, actual Ridgeland system capacity in MGD, and the drought contingency plan for the Ridgeland system: Not found as of 2026-08-02. Ask Ridgeland Public Works and MDEQ — see §8.

Drought status. U.S. Drought Monitor map released July 30, 2026 (data valid July 28): Mississippi statewide at 17.7% D0, 7.0% D1, 4.2% D2, 3.1% D3, 0.9% D4 — 15.2% of the state in D1–D4, ~269,500 residents affected. Madison County-specific classification: Not found as of 2026-08-02 (read the interactive county map at droughtmonitor.unl.edu).

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 39174: 56.6% Black, population 525 (Census ACS 2023, as provided in the project source data). This is effectively the Tougaloo College campus ZIP.
  • Tougaloo College — founded 1869 on the former Boddie plantation, one of Mississippi's two private HBCUs, and the institution that sheltered and organized much of the state's civil rights movement. It is a National Historic Landmark district.
  • Madison County overall is among the wealthiest and fastest-growing counties in Mississippi, driven by Ridgeland and Madison. Tougaloo sits at the seam where that wealth meets the north edge of Jackson.

A hyperscale campus and a 754 MW gas plant being built on the doorstep of a 525-person HBCU ZIP is exactly the siting pattern this project documents: heavy industrial load placed where the political constituency is smallest and Blackest, at the boundary of a wealthier jurisdiction that captures the tax revenue.

Poverty rate, median income, and student-vs-resident population split for ZIP 39174: Not independently re-verified as of 2026-08-02. Pull at data.census.gov (ZCTA 39174).

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

Who collects. The Costas campus is in Ridgeland, Madison County. Madison County and Ridgeland collect the tax/fee revenue. ZIP 39174's residents and Tougaloo College do not — Tougaloo is a nonprofit institution with a Jackson mailing address on the Hinds line. This is the core asymmetry: the impacts land on the county line; the revenue lands in Madison County's general fund.

Fee-in-lieu-of-taxes (FILOT). Madison County executed two FILOTs with AWS — one for the Mega Site and one for the County Line Road (Ridgeland) location. Reported structure: about one-third of total assessed value paid over 10 years, with each new building getting its own 10-year agreement.

Benchmarks (Madison County is unusual here). Per the Madison County Journal, Madison County is the only Mississippi county tying its fee-in-lieu percentage to project benchmarks: AWS must create 700 jobs by 2036 and maintain that for five years, and invest $10 billion by 2030, or pay a higher fee.

County revenue: ~$28 million in 2027, projected $54 million/year by 2032, being used in part to pay down a $215 million state loan.

State incentives. Mississippi's statutory data-center incentive requires ≥$20 million invested and 20 full-time jobs at 125% of state average wage, MDA certification, contract recapture clauses, and annual review. It provides a 10-year sales/use tax exemption on construction materials and equipment plus income and franchise tax exemptions. For the largest deals the state has granted permanent sales-and-use tax exemptions on equipment.

Utility investment (not a tax payment): Amazon's $37 million into Ridgeland's water system and $300 million into Entergy grid improvements are infrastructure the projects require; they are not community grants. Separately, Amazon reports $12 million since 2024 in Mississippi workforce/education spending and $400,000 in community grants statewide.

Any dedicated benefit to Tougaloo College or ZIP 39174: Not found as of 2026-08-02. If AWS or Madison County has made a commitment to Tougaloo, it is not in the public record located here. That is a fair question to ask (§8).

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

Tougaloo College is the organizing venue. On July 16, 2026, Mississippi For A Just World (MSJW) held "People Over Politics: Stop Data Centers Edition" in Warren Hall, the student life center on the Tougaloo College campus. Over 70 concerned citizens attended. MSJW distributed workbooks with a glossary, fact sheets, and interactive worksheets.

People named in that coverage (BlackPressUSA):

  • Sabir Abdul-Haqq, director, Mississippi For A Just World
  • Candace Abdul-Tawwab, executive director, MSJW — "Success looks like they bend to the will of the people."
  • Dr. Erin Shirley Orey, Environmental Advocates of Mississippi — "One of the things I would like to ask any data center developer is, why so much secrecy?"
  • Kadin Love, Gulf South manager, Dogwood Alliance — "Innovation is not liberation…"
  • Dr. Nashlie Sephus, AI scientist, founder/CEO of The Beanpath
  • Cassandra Bennett, attendee — "There was little to no information out there. I came here to learn."
  • Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Sr., chair of Downtown Jackson Partners — pro-development

Related regional flashpoint: In Southaven, MS, residents reported noise and vibration from xAI's Colossus 2 turbines beginning February 2026; CBS News reported the mayor's advice to affected homeowners was to "consider selling." That coverage is repeatedly cited by Jackson-metro residents as the reason for their skepticism.

Organized opposition specific to the Costas/Ridgeland site (petitions, lawsuits, zoning appeals): Not found as of 2026-08-02. The organizing energy documented so far is metro-wide and Jackson-focused; Ridgeland's own approvals appear to have moved without significant public contest.

Key coverage:

  • BlackPressUSA — "Connecting the Dots: Mississippi's AI Boom Leaves Communities Searching for Answers"
  • Mississippi Today (April 22, 2026) — "Ridgeland data center faces Mississippi energy giants' opposition"
  • Mississippi Today (June 1, 2026) — "Mississippi developer plans to proceed with data center"
  • WLBT (April 22, 2026) — "Jackson developer seeks PSC ruling for electric plant at proposed tech site"
  • Mississippi Today (June 9, 2026) — "Where do Amazon's data centers in Mississippi stand?"

8. Find Out For Yourself

All contacts below were taken from official government or utility websites on 2026-08-02. Verify before relying on them.

City of Ridgeland (land-use authority for the Costas campus)

Madison County Board of Supervisors (FILOT authority)

Water

  • City of Ridgeland Public Works / Water — via City Hall, (601) 856-7113. Ask for the Amazon water-service agreement and the system's current and post-upgrade capacity in MGD.
  • JXN Water (if your tap is on Jackson's system): (601) 500-5200, 24/7 · mailing PO Box 22667, Jackson, MS 39225 · https://jxnwater.com/
  • MDEQ — for surface/groundwater withdrawal permits and air permits: https://opc.deq.state.ms.us/

Power & rates

Community organizations already working on this

  • Mississippi For A Just World (MSJW) — held the July 16, 2026 training at Tougaloo's Warren Hall
  • Environmental Advocates of Mississippi
  • Dogwood Alliance (Gulf South program)

Newsrooms (tips)

  • Mississippi Today — mississippitoday.org · Mississippi Free Press — mississippifreepress.org · Jackson Advocate · Madison County Journal — onlinemadison.com · WLBT 3 / WAPT 16 / WJTV 12 · Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting

Six questions to ask when you call

  1. "Exactly how many feet is the AWS Costas campus property line from the Tougaloo College property line, and from the nearest residence in 39174?" (Ask Ridgeland Planning and Madison County GIS. Get it in writing with a parcel map.)
  2. "What air permits have been issued for the Costas campus backup generators — permit numbers, number of generators, and permitted annual run hours?" (Ask MDEQ. This is the number that matters for a campus next to a college.)
  3. "Which water system serves my address — Ridgeland or JXN Water — and what is that system's drought contingency plan when it's serving 93 million extra gallons a year?" (Ask Ridgeland Public Works and JXN Water.)
  4. "Can I get a copy of the FILOT agreement for the County Line Road campus, and what portion of that revenue, if any, returns to the Tougaloo/County Line area?" (Ask the Madison County Chancery Clerk. It is a public record.)
  5. "What is the current status of PSC Docket 2026-AD-10, and can I file a public comment in it?" (Ask the PSC Central District office directly.)
  6. "When Traceview comes online in 2029, what is the modeled air-quality impact at the Tougaloo College campus, and was a cumulative-impact analysis done that combined Traceview with the AWS generators?" (Ask MDEQ. If no cumulative analysis exists, that itself is the answer.)

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Honest read:

What's real. This is the fastest-growing, highest-tax-base corner of Mississippi. Ridgeland's water system is being materially upgraded — $37 million and +10% capacity — which is a genuine improvement, and one Jackson residents a mile south do not get. Amazon is on Ridgeland's system, not Jackson's, so the AWS campus is not a direct draw on the receivership-managed JXN Water system. Roads, retail, and services on the Highland Colony corridor are strong.

What's unresolved, specifically for 39174.

  • You get the industry, Madison County gets the money. ZIP 39174's residents live on the impact side of a county line whose revenue side is elsewhere. Nothing found in the public record directs data-center revenue to Tougaloo or to 39174.
  • Two heavy loads, not one. The AWS campus and a 754 MW gas plant are both being built in Ridgeland. A third — Prado AI's proposed 350 MW private plant — is unresolved at the PSC and the developer says he'll proceed anyway.
  • No cumulative-impact analysis was located. Individually permitted projects can each pass while their combined air and noise load at the Tougaloo property line has never been modeled. Ask for it.
  • Which utility serves you matters enormously. North of the line: Ridgeland's system, being upgraded. South of the line: JXN Water, under federal receivership since 2022 with no exit before a stated 2029 self-sufficiency goal. Confirm your address's provider before you sign anything.
  • Construction phase is loud and dusty. Canton residents 25 miles north, at the sister campus, documented exactly that — dust on homes and cars, night machinery noise, and at least one family reporting asthma ER visits. Assume the same envelope here.
  • Land-price pressure. Highland Colony / County Line frontage will keep appreciating. That cuts both ways: equity for owners, affordability pressure for renters and for the institution's neighbors.

Bottom line. 39174 is a tiny, historically significant ZIP that has been placed between a hyperscale campus, a new gas plant, a possible second private gas plant, and a city water crisis — with essentially no local tax jurisdiction of its own to bargain with. That is not a reason not to live here. It is a reason to show up at Ridgeland Board of Aldermen meetings (first and third Tuesdays, 6 p.m., 100 W. School Street) and at Madison County Board of Supervisors meetings, and to ask for the parcel map and the air permits in writing before you buy.

Not real-estate or investment advice. Pull the permits, verify the water provider, and visit the site at night.

10. Sources

All accessed 2026-08-02 unless noted.

Facility & siting

Prado AI / PSC docket

Power

Water

Community

Contacts

Money

Drought

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.