Did Whitmer Push Saline Data Center Without Proper Permits?
State officials warned that the Democrat-backed project was going ahead without required paperwork
Last week, Michiganders learned that the Whitmer administration is considering allowing the Oracle Saline Data Center (“the Barn”) to discharge an average of 15,750 gallons of wastewater into the Saline River every day.
A Freedom of Information Act Request by Michigan Enjoyer shows The Barn’s developer may have known nearly a year prior that it would have a big wastewater problem to deal with.
On Aug. 21, 2025, wastewater engineer Ted Erickson contacted EGLE about the proposed treatment plant. The team was considering underground disposal, but Erickson offered a blunt assessment: “From what I’ve seen–[ground water] is high so not hopeful.”
The day before, EGLE Field Operations Representative (Water Division) Kyle Alexander said in a different conversation with lobbyists that grading on the site could begin in unregulated areas outside the agency’s jurisdiction.
However, because permitting decisions had not been made, he warned that the developer would be “proceeding at their own risk.”
Project representative Patrick Harrington accepted that warning on Aug. 21: “We understand that this grading work will be at our own risk.”
Harrington also resisted combining the temporary stream-crossing permit with the broader wetland review, explaining that work needed to begin in October “to maintain our construction schedule.”
“As referenced above we understand we are doing this at our own risk,” Harrington, a longtime lobbyist in Lansing, added.
Why was the timeline seemingly more important than testing and obtaining permits for critical water infrastructure?
By Oct. 10, a project drawing depicted a wastewater-treatment plant, sanitary sewer and outlet beside the Saline River was submitted.
Five days later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster connected Related executives directly with EGLE Director Phil Roos.
Only a few weeks later, Whitmer announced Project Mitten on Oct. 30. Did Whitmer do the developers a special favor by fast-tracking the project despite environmental concerns?
It certainly seems that way.
Included in Related Digital’s Anti Degradation paperwork is an undated, signed letter from Governor Gretchen Whitmer in support of Project Stargate to the Commissioners stating “time is of the essence.”
On Nov. 3, Erickson told EGLE that a surface-water-discharge application would be filed soon and that the owner was “quite concerned with timing and schedule.”
Earlier emails show EGLE officials were already frustrated that the developer’s consultants wanted decisions involving streams, drains, and wetlands without providing a site plan, completed wetland delineation, or Wetland Identification Program application.
One EGLE official wrote internally that the agency’s recommendations had been “generally overridden or ignored to this point.”
EGLE is now considering a draft permit allowing the project’s treated sanitary wastewater to be discharged into the Saline River.
The agency acknowledges that the discharge would increase pollutants and lower existing water quality for certain parameters, although it says the discharge must still comply with applicable water-quality standards.
Ryan Friedrichs—husband of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is supervising her own election for governor—represented Related before Saline City Council on November 10.
One week later, Related formally selected the Saline River alternative.
While the “do it at your own risk” warning applied to early grading, the chronology is clear: Data center construction was advancing while wetland, stream-crossing and wastewater questions remained unsettled.
Would the Barn have received the same interventions from Governor Whitmer and EGLE if Related Digital didn’t have politically connected advocates?
