September 18, 2026
Contact: Pat Cupples, Chapter Director, Sierra Club Tennessee
pat.cupples@sierraclub.org
Sierra Club Tennessee joins Bradley County residents in opposing Project River annexation
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Sierra Club Tennessee is standing with Bradley County residents against Project River, an $11.3 billion data center and biomass power plant proposed for roughly 850 acres along the Hiawassee River, and is calling on the Cleveland City Council to reject annexation of the site.
Bradley County adopted a 3,000 foot setback ordinance requiring data centers to sit well clear of homes, schools, churches and farms. Project River's developers, the Wright family and Wright Brothers, cannot meet that standard on this site. Instead they are asking the city of Cleveland to annex the property so the county's common sense guardrails no longer apply. This area is made up of working farms that have been held by the same families for generations. The land is about 5 miles outside city limits, and was never part of any city growth plan before this proposal showed up.
More than 4,000 people have signed a petition against the project. Hundreds packed the most recent city council meeting, and dozens held a silent protest outside city hall on a recent Sunday evening.
The neighbors whose homes surround this project describe what's at stake better than anyone else can. "I've been paying on my whole working life, since 1974. I started making payments on those properties, managed to get them paid off about 10 years ago, and intended to live there peacefully... it's just not fair that somebody with that kind of money that doesn't need the money can come in here and just crush us," said Larry Ellis who has 3 plots touching the proposed development. Asked about a reported buyout offer from the Wright Brothers, another family gave a simple answer: "We won’t sell it to them, and never will". A longtime resident whose house is mere feet from the potential truck entrance, Sherry Neidich described nearly 60 years on the land: "Our kids rode horses, and we hiked and rode bikes and have cut trails, and now it's gonna be gone."
Residents point to a list of concerns that has only grown as more of the project has come to light: and estimate of 500 log trucks a day on rural roads that were never built for that kind of traffic, industrial noise from wood chippers and turbines, blasting through limestone near private wells, and the destruction of farmland some families have worked for over a hundred years.
This project also rests on unproven technology and a wood supply the region cannot realistically provide. The developers plan to burn biomass at a scale no one has run successfully before, using a wood basket that already can't compete with export markets, and relying on water and byproduct systems their own site plans don't have room for. Biomass economics are also weakening nationally, with major suppliers cutting production and facing legal exposure over their sustainability claims. Residents aren't just facing construction and noise. They're facing the very real possibility of a half built industrial site sitting stranded on their river, based on a design the market was never going to support, after the trees are already gone. The clearcutting has already begun.
Independent technical review of the developers' own plans has raised serious doubts about whether the project can even function as described. The site plan omits basic infrastructure the process requires, including a debarking system and storage for the wood waste (biochar) the plant would generate, and the region's wood supply cannot realistically support the volume the developers claim they need.
Cleveland City Council is expected to hear from the developers again on September 21, with a vote on annexation possible as early as September 28. Sierra Club Tennessee is urging the council to reject annexation and let Bradley County's own protections stand.
"The clearcutting has started, but it's not too late to turn back and listen to common sense, which tells us this is the wrong place for a half baked plan that's likely to end up a stranded asset. Our elected leaders at every level of government like to say they stand with farmers. This is where we find out if that's true," said Pat Cupples , chapter director of Sierra Club Tennessee.
Sierra Club Tennessee is the state chapter of the Sierra Club, representing roughly 40,000 members and supporters across all 95 Tennessee counties.