CALHOUN BRAKE, La. — A baby alligator scrambled off a log as Parnell Perry weaved his mud boat through the swamp, bumping into the occasional cypress tree. Dragonflies buzzed lazily in the August afternoon heat. Parnell’s father, Harvey Perry, sat on the bow.
As the boat arrived at a clearing, the landscape changed abruptly. Towering electrical transmission lines — ”high lines,” as Parnell calls them — came into view above.
The swamp is more than 30 miles northwest of Meta’s $50 billion “Hyperion” data center, in Holly Ridge. But the effects of the massive data center are already being felt here. Contractors turned a property down the road into a dirt pit, and they’ve been hauling earth to a site next door to the property, where Entergy is building a new substation.
Now, the Perry family is fighting in court with Entergy over whether the utility should be able to use eminent domain laws to overtake land and force its way through the Brake — and Parnell’s backyard — to build a series of new transmission lines to power Meta’s data center. Doing so would require clearing part of the swamp. Ultimately, Entergy would extend the clearing to build another set of lines next to the existing ones.