Apple to create public wetland area in Waukee, Iowa

Apple is applying to the City of Waukee in Iowa, just west of Des Moines, to return some of its land surrounding its iCloud data center back into a freshwater marsh, also known as a "prairie pothole."

The company originally bought over 2,000 acres of land there in 2017, with the intention of building a data center by 2020. It finally began construction of the first of two planned data centers in 2022.

Apple is reserving some 592 acres of the land for future data centers and storage facilities, along with water management use. In the meantime, Apple wants to rehabilitate a portion of the excess land into a wetland restoration area, with walking paths for public accessibility for a possible nature trail or park.

Apple intends to create a wetlands restoration area on some of the land it won't be using for future data centers and related facilities. The affected area will comprise approximately 220 acres.

The company committed in 2021 to spending some $430 billion on various development projects in the US over the following five years. The projects included a campus in North Carolina, as well as the Iowa data centers alongside facilities in Texas and California.

Other Apple data centers in the US include facilities in Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oregon.

According to a report from the Waukee city government, the project will include repairing and rerouting field tiles in order to better manage stormwater runoff from adjacent farm fields. In addition to the field tile repair, Apple will be required to install a sanitary sewer and water main across the site.

The staff of the city council have recommended the plan. Apple will go before the city council on August 13th, 2024 to seek formal approval for the project.

While plans for Apple's future data center expansion in Waukee are unlikely to meet with any resistance, there have been occasional protests about tech companies' large power and water requirements for data centers. Apple's plans for a data center in Athenry, Ireland brought some public complaints regarding environmental assurances, and a court case over the matter is ongoing.