Vermillion County

Terra Hosting operates a cryptocurrency mining and data center facility at the Vermillion Rise Mega Park, a 7,000-acre industrial park on the former Newport Chemical Depot site near Cayuga. The facility has 1,600+ dedicated ASIC crypto mining machines already active and is being positioned for AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, and enterprise data services. Hosting rates are $0.0825/kWh via Duke Energy (12kV and 69kV three-phase service). The site has permitted groundwater withdrawal capacity of 43.57 million gallons per day and a 7-million-gallon on-site reservoir. The Vermillion Rise Mega Park is owned and operated by the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority (NeCDRA), a local government entity with Commissioner-appointed board members: Willie Wyres (President), Eddie Thompson (VP), Joe Ellis (Treasurer), J.P. Roehm, Adam Winland. A public meeting was held April 9, 2026 at the Cayuga Community Center to discuss data center development. Status: OPERATIONAL (crypto mining). Expanding toward AI/HPC.

HB 1405 (2019), signed May 5, 2019 by Gov. Eric Holcomb as Public Law 256. Codified at IC 6-1.1-10-44 (property tax exemption for enterprise IT equipment) and IC 6-2.5-15 (sales tax exemption for data center equipment). Created Indiana's data center tax incentive framework: sales tax exemptions on equipment and electricity, plus business personal property tax exemptions for qualifying data centers. Note: IC 6-1.1-12.3 (originally cited in some analyses) has been repealed; the active property tax provision is IC 6-1.1-10-44, as amended by P.L.256-2019, SEC.1.

HB 1405/P.L. 256 exempts: (1) Sales tax on data center equipment purchases — servers, storage, networking, cooling, backup power (IC 6-2.5-15-11); (2) Sales tax on electricity consumed by qualifying data centers; (3) Business personal property tax on enterprise IT equipment (IC 6-1.1-10-44) — duration set by local agreement between designating body and eligible business; (4) Sales tax certificate duration: 25 years (or 50 years if investment >= $750M) per IC 6-2.5-15-14. Qualifying thresholds are population-tiered (IC 6-2.5-15-10): $150M in counties >100K population, $100M in counties 50K-100K, $25M in counties <=50K. Investment must be met by 5th anniversary of certificate.

No public vote documented. Terra Hosting's operations at Vermillion Rise appear to have been approved through NeCDRA's standard tenant/lease process, not a public rezoning or special use hearing.
NeCDRA Board: Willie Wyres (President), Eddie Thompson (VP), Joe Ellis (Treasurer), J.P. Roehm, Adam Winland.

Terra Hosting at Vermillion Rise:
- Initial investment: $4-5 million
- Projected future investment: exceeding $20 million
- 1,600+ ASIC crypto mining machines at full capacity
- Current staffing: 2 full-time employees on-site
- Hosting rate: $0.0825/kWh
- Co-founder: Michael Zuccarelli
- Expanding via Terre Compute division (AI/HPC services)

No tax abatement details public.

No tax abatement details public.

2 full-time employees on-site. Minimal direct job creation.

No public infrastructure commitments documented.

No tax abatement details public. With only 2 full-time employees and $4-5M initial investment, the direct economic impact is small relative to the infrastructure available.

Primary authors: Rep. Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso, HD 4) — still in office as of 2026; Sen. Jim Buck (R-Kokomo, SD 21); Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso, SD 5); Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle, SD 19); Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Salem, HD 47) — now U.S. Representative IN-9; Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper, SD 48); Sen. Lonnie Randolph (D-East Chicago, SD 2) — Lake County. Co-authors: Rep. Earl Harris Sr. (D-East Chicago, HD 2) — Lake County; Rep. Todd Huston (R-Fishers, HD 37); Rep. Carolyn Jackson (D-Hammond, HD 1) — Lake County; Rep. Matthew Lehman (R-Berne, HD 79); Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie, HD 20) — LaPorte County. Note: 3 of 12 sponsors represent Lake County districts.

House initial passage: 95-1 (Feb 19, 2019). Senate passage: 46-0 (Mar 25, 2019). Conference committee report adopted: House 82-8 (Apr 18, 2019), Senate 44-0 (Apr 18, 2019). Signed by Governor: May 5, 2019. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in all votes.

No formal vote by Commissioners on data center approval. Terra Hosting operates at Vermillion Rise Mega Park, governed by the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority (NeCDRA) — a commissioner-appointed board. NeCDRA controls the 7,000-acre industrial park on the former Newport Chemical Depot.

No public vote documented. Terra Hosting's operations at Vermillion Rise appear to have been approved through NeCDRA's standard tenant/lease process, not a public rezoning or special use hearing.
NeCDRA Board: Willie Wyres (President), Eddie Thompson (VP), Joe Ellis (Treasurer), J.P. Roehm, Adam Winland.

No public hearing documented for Terra Hosting's facility. The operation started ~September 2025 with minimal public notice. No documented community opposition.

NeCDRA board meetings: contact through vermillionrise.com
Commissioners: vermilliongov.us/commissioners/
Meeting minutes: commissioners.vermillioncounty83.us

TWO SEPARATE STATUTES, TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS:

PROPERTY TAX (IC 6-1.1-10-44): NO clawback mechanism. The statute authorizes a local "designating body" (county or municipality) to enter an agreement granting a property tax exemption. The eligible business must invest $25M+ and pay wages at 125% of county average (Sec. 44(b)(3)-(4)). However, the statute contains NO enforcement, recapture, or penalty provision if these conditions are later unmet. The only protection would be terms negotiated into the local agreement itself — the statute does not require any.

SALES TAX (IC 6-2.5-15): LIMITED enforcement via noncompliance assessment. Section 15 requires an agreement with IEDC including annual reporting of taxes not paid. Section 18 provides: if IEDC determines a company is noncompliant with the agreement or chapter requirements, IEDC notifies the Dept. of Revenue, which MAY impose an assessment up to the total taxes exempted plus interest and penalties. The trigger is failing to meet the "qualified data center" definition (Sec. 10) — i.e., not reaching the investment threshold by the 5th anniversary.

CRITICAL OMISSIONS: Neither statute requires job creation targets, community benefit commitments, water use limits, renewable energy use, or any ongoing performance metrics beyond the initial investment threshold. There are no wage requirements in the sales tax statute. The property tax statute has a 125% county average wage requirement but no mechanism to enforce it after the exemption is granted. The first economic impact study (Sec. 20) is not due until 2030 — 11 years after the law passed.

2026 session reform bills: (1) HB 1210 (Rep. Ed Soliday, R) — PASSED, weakened. Original: data centers pay fair share of electricity costs. Senate version: $5M/year savings to ratepayers. Final (after private meetings with industry): 1% electricity savings, capped at $350K/year. Signed into law. (2) HB 1333 (Rep. Beau Baird, R) — DIED. Would have protected farmland from data center conversion by requiring agricultural zoning protections. (3) HB 1245 (Rep. Matt Pierce, D) — DIED. Would have required IURC to study data center electricity impacts on ratepayers. (4) SB 257 (Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown) — DIED. Would have protected residential ratepayers from bearing data center infrastructure costs. (5) SB 79 (Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis) — status unclear. Would require data centers to disclose water and electricity consumption. (6) HB 1043 — Would require DNR water consumption permit for large data centers. 2025 session: HB 1007 — ENACTED. Requires data centers to commit to paying 80% of generation costs for electricity. Pattern: 5 of 6 reform bills in 2026 died. The one that passed (HB 1210) was weakened from $5M/year to $350K/year in closed-door meetings.

No. Indiana does NOT require state-level environmental impact review for data center projects. There is no state EIS/EIR process equivalent to NEPA for private data center construction. Permits required: IDEM air permits for diesel backup generators (Title V or minor source); NPDES water discharge permits; stormwater permits. These are standard industrial permits, not data-center-specific review. Local ordinances are filling the void: Lake County (Aug 2025) adopted a data center ordinance requiring noise limits, setbacks, energy efficiency plans, water management plans, and decommission plans. Kosciusko County (Feb 2025) classified data centers as "exceptional use" requiring special permits. These are LOCAL responses to the absence of state-level requirements.

No. Indiana does NOT require data centers to report water consumption or use renewable energy. No existing statute or regulation mandates either. SB 79 (2026, Sen. J.D. Ford, D) would have required water and electricity consumption disclosure — status unclear/likely died. HB 1043 (2026) would have required a DNR water consumption permit for facilities using large volumes — status unclear/likely died. For context: IU Environmental Resilience Institute reports US data centers consumed 17.4 billion gallons of water in 2023, expected to double by 2028. A single hyperscale campus requires 200+ acres, 100+ MW of power (equivalent to 80,000 homes), and millions of gallons of water annually for cooling. Indiana is projected to need 426 TWh of data center electricity by 2030 — "more electricity than all 6.8 million Hoosier households today" (IU ERI).

Vermillion Rise has 12kV and 69kV three-phase electrical service from Duke Energy. On-site natural gas utility also available. No data center-specific rate case filed.

Vermillion Rise has permitted groundwater withdrawal capacity of 43.57 million gallons per day from the Wabash River aquifer, plus a 7-million-gallon reservoir on site. Significant cooling capacity available for expansion.

- Michael Zuccarelli (Terra Hosting co-founder): "We're more like a parking lot for people that want to mine crypto, whether that's Bitcoin or Casper or any of the major cryptocurrencies."
- No commissioner statements found regarding the data center operations.

County Commissioners:
- Misty Hess (District 1): term TBD
- Bill Peebles (District 2): term TBD
- RJ Dunavan (District 3): term TBD
Note: Former Commissioner Tim Yocum (President) was selected via GOP caucus in January 2025 to join the state House.

Commissioners: meeting schedule at vermilliongov.us/commissioners/
Agenda request form must be submitted a week before meetings.
Contact: Ron Dunavan at 765-492-5300
Email: [email protected]
NeCDRA: vermillionrise.com

1. Terra Hosting operates with minimal oversight — 2 employees, crypto mining, no public hearing. Ask commissioners: what is the county's oversight framework?
2. The 43.57M gallon/day water withdrawal capacity is enormous. If Terra scales to AI/HPC, water usage will increase dramatically. Demand water usage reporting.
3. Ask NeCDRA board: what are the lease terms? Are there environmental protections, noise limits, or capacity constraints?
4. With Tim Yocum leaving for state House, ask new commissioners: do you support data center expansion at Vermillion Rise? Under what conditions?
5. Contact state legislators about SB 257 and HB 1245.