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This story was originally published by Capital B.

As a rare winter storm bore down on South Carolina, bringing conditions that historically paralyze the state for days, local officials in a rural county quietly pushed through a massive $2.4 billion data center without most residents knowing it was even on the table.

“There was a public meeting, which most were unaware of,” Jessie Chandler, a resident of rural Marion County, told Capital B, referring to a Jan. 22 council meeting. “I know legally they had to announce the public meeting within a certain time frame for all of us to attend, but most of the county [was] preparing for this winter storm, which we know firsthand will affect us all because it has before.”

Marion County officials confirmed that the council signed a nondisclosure agreement, which barred their ability to make the data center public. On the agenda prior to the council meeting, the line item for the vote was called “Project Liberty,” but it did not list details of the project.

The pattern residents of this majority-Black rural county are experiencing is not isolated.

Across the country, developers are using NDAs to keep projects hidden while systematically choosing communities — often majority-Black rural counties — with less organized political and economic power. Marion County is no different. The area has a poverty and unemployment rate that is twice as high as the U.S. average.

Davante Lewis, a Louisiana Public Service Commissioner who has opposed data center projects, said the pattern of NDAs and tax deals negotiated before public input has become standard practice.

“Engagement, for me, shouldn’t happen after you’ve already signed the deal or you got the NDA and cut a tax deal. It should be at the beginning when you’re considering it,” Lewis told Capital B in October.

The practice is leaving communities in the dark about projects that will strain their water and power supplies.

By 2028, data centers are expected to use the same........

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