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.”
Apple’s conceptual plan for the first of its two data centers in Waukee, Iowa.
Apple’s conceptual plan for the first of its two data centers in Waukee, Iowa.
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.