Listen
Sensors go into the pit, and Stewardship AI learns it for a full year before any hardware enters the water: temperature, oxygen, chemistry, and the life it holds. That year is the baseline every later claim is measured against.
Flagship Living Campus
Node Zero
Our first campus: one flooded quarry pit in South Carolina, measured for a full year before any computing goes in the water.
Site search underway · flooded and abandoned quarries · South Carolina
What Node Zero Is
The first Stewardship Node — a model made to travel.
Compute infrastructure planned around the limits and needs of the site that hosts it.
Stewardship Compute is built for the places extraction left behind: flooded quarries and old mine pits. We’re evaluating flooded quarries in South Carolina for Node Zero, and no site is chosen yet. The core technology will be proven first in a controlled pond, separate from the campus site.
The same system is designed to travel. Pisgah Bay Rock Quarry on Kentucky Lake is where we intend to go once Node Zero has proven the model. Arriving with measured results should make the federal review easier for everyone.
Beyond it: other flooded rock quarries, private quarry pits like Dutch Springs, and the old iron and copper mine pits of the upper Midwest. Each one has to earn its place through its own science and permitting. Natural lakes are outside our scope by design.
Around every Node sits the living campus, where AI and people work together to help the land and water recover.
The model ties every part of the operation to ecological monitoring and measurable water-quality accountability. The goal is not to claim impact before evidence. The goal is to measure the site before expansion and make performance visible enough to be reviewed.
Node Zero is designed as infrastructure with obligations: engineering review, institutional access, baseline sensor work, public reporting pathways, and a governance model that keeps water-quality accountability and prohibited workload enforcement part of the operating logic.
How Node Zero Grows
01
02
03
04
Start small. Listen first. Grow only when it’s healthy.
Node Zero is meant to grow the way a healthy cell does: only through healthy choices, and only as fast as the evidence and the community allow.
One pod, one steward
A single sealed compute pod and a single site steward, funded by grants and donations while the concept is proven. The steward and the AI watch the pit together, every day.
Grow on evidence
Another pod, a cabin, a greenhouse — each is added only after the data shows the last step helped the pit recover, or at the very least did no harm. If it didn’t, the campus stops and corrects course.
Help the pit heal
The pit is a scar left by neglect. Over time the goal is to weaken what slows its natural recovery and strengthen what speeds it up — judged against restoration targets set and published before the work begins.
Stewardship AI on site
Giving the campus a way to talk with its environment.
The point of Stewardship AI at Node Zero is to shorten the time between a problem appearing in the water and a person acting on it. That is also the real test of the whole model: can it watch a living site in real time and give answers that hold up against the data?
Stewardship AI is in early access today. Watching a living site in real time is what Node Zero is built to test, not something we claim it already does.
- It watchesReads the pit’s sensors continuously and compares every reading against the baseline year.
- It explainsSays in plain language what changed and what it likely means, pointing to the readings behind it.
- The steward decidesThe AI advises. A trained person decides and acts, and every decision is logged.
- Hard limits don’t depend on the AIFixed alarm limits for temperature and oxygen are set before operation and trigger on their own, whatever the AI says.
- The AI is checked tooHow fast it flags a problem, how often it’s wrong, and how its readings compare with lab samples — measured and published.
What We're Looking For
Node Zero starts close to home, in South Carolina.
Node Zero isn’t a generic data center site. We’re evaluating flooded quarries in South Carolina against the standard every Node has to meet. No site is chosen, and none will be without a willing owner and the community’s support. The campus is modular, so it can fit any flooded quarry pit with enough water surface and some land around it.
Already-Disturbed Water
A flooded or abandoned quarry pit — water that extraction already shaped. The planning premise avoids new excavation.
Depth and Thermal Stability
Enough depth and volume for the water to stay thermally stable. Every candidate is measured before it is assumed suitable, and a pit that doesn't measure up is passed over.
Community Support First
The neighbors decide whether a Node belongs. A site moves forward only with the support of the community around it — without that, it doesn't go forward at all.
No Community Displacement
A pit, not a residential footprint. The plan does not depend on displacing anyone, and it still requires formal review and public accountability.
Power, Fiber, and Review
Grid and fiber access, plus the state environmental and mining review any field work requires. The energy strategy remains subject to utility review and agreement, and nothing is represented as approved.
Room for the Public
Land around the pit for what the campus is meant to share: rental eco cabins, community gardens and farmers markets, trails, demonstrations, and water-based recreation.
Pisgah Bay Rock Quarry, Kentucky Lake: our planning and design work began here, and it remains where we intend to go once Node Zero has proven the model. Because it sits inside TVA's managed water system and the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, we believe arriving with measured results will make the federal review process easier for everyone involved.
How The Model Works
01
02
03
04
Submerged compute, measured before expansion.
Submerge
Compute hardware would be sealed in waterproof modular enclosures and lowered into the quarry pit under reviewed deployment and retrieval protocols.
Cool
Keeping the computers cool is designed not to draw on the water a town drinks, with maintenance access part of the design.
Measure the oxygen question
Operations are designed to protect the pit’s natural layering, not disturb it. Whether careful operation produces any net water-quality benefit is an open question, not a promise; it is exactly what the baseline study is built to measure. Do-no-harm comes first, and every claim stays behind the data.
Measure
Temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, conductivity, and other water-quality indicators would be monitored before expansion. If the evidence does not support the next phase, the project should not take the next phase.
Water stewardship systems are designed to keep the pit and the groundwater around it protected, judged on evidence rather than assumption.
Node Zero moves through measurement, not slogans. The model is designed to make ecological claims reviewable through baseline studies, sensor data, institutional oversight, and staged pilot decisions. Measure first, claim second. Do no harm first — then, with evidence, do good.
Current Status
A staged path from planning to review to pilot design.
Node Zero is not presented as approved construction. It is an organized project pathway with documented planning, active institutional conversations, and next steps that depend on access, baseline study, and review.
Completed / Documented
- Stewardship Compute LLC formed and active.
- SAM.gov registration and UEI number obtained for federal entity readiness.
- Engineering planning underway and documented in a 31-page integration package.
- Digital twin work underway in Unreal Engine for spatial simulation and presentation.
- ERDC/WERX BAA application filed on January 14, 2026.
- Stewardship AI available in public early access as part of the broader ecological intelligence stack.
In Progress
- Institutional letters and support materials with local university research contacts.
- Evaluating flooded and abandoned quarry sites in South Carolina to host Node Zero.
- Research relationships for hydrology, environmental, and engineering expertise.
- EV code signing certificate procurement, with entity registration complete and certificate acquisition underway.
- Installer readiness for Stewardship AI and related software distribution.
Next
- Select a South Carolina site with a willing owner and community support, then complete the required state review.
- Baseline sensor study before hardware enters the quarry.
- Pilot design review with research and agency stakeholders.
- Refinement of monitoring, reporting, and expansion thresholds.
- Later: carry the proven model to Pisgah Bay, with TVA and USFS.
The Shared Living Laboratory
Shared infrastructure for high-impact research.
Rather than asking every university, agency, and research team to construct redundant field stations, Stewardship provides shared stewardship infrastructure capable of hosting multiple grants, environmental studies, and workforce programs simultaneously.
“Researchers bring the expertise. Stewardship provides the living laboratory.”
Engineering + Digital Twin
Project readiness is being built before hardware enters the water.
Node Zero planning includes a 31-page, six-section engineering integration package covering structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, data-system, and governance concerns. It is a planning and readiness document, not a substitute for formal site access, permitting, or agency approval.
The infrastructure logic is modular: waterproof enclosures, staged deployment, retrieval protocols, circulation planning, power-routing concepts, monitoring arrays, remote management, and public reporting obligations are treated as connected parts of the same system.
Unreal Engine digital twin work is underway to visualize quarry geometry, compute placement, circulation decisions, and ecological monitoring before physical deployment.
- Engineering planningQuarry pit assessment, enclosure anchoring, submersion and retrieval protocols, thermodynamic cooling design, and maintenance access logic.
- Modular infrastructure logicStaged hardware modules designed to be inspected, serviced, removed, and expanded only after reviewable performance data.
- Digital twinUnreal Engine simulation used for partner presentations, spatial validation, water-flow visualization, and public communication.
- Monitoring/data systemsSensor array placement, baseline protocols, water-quality parameters, network routing, remote management, security architecture, data sovereignty, and reporting framework.
- Governance controlsOperational oversight, partner responsibilities, prohibited workload enforcement, continuity planning, and public accountability obligations.
Digital Walkthrough
Walk the campus before it exists.
A navigable digital twin of the Stewardship living campus concept, modeled on the Pisgah Bay site where our design work began — the quarry, the submerged compute, the berm structures, and the surrounding land. Its pieces are modular, designed to be fitted to Node Zero's South Carolina site and to every Node after it. It is a visualization of our design work, not a built facility; every element remains subject to the site review, baseline study, and engineering validation described above.
Best viewed full-screen. The walkthrough reflects current design intent and will evolve as the engineering and site-review work continues.
Partnerships + Review Path
Node Zero depends on review, access, and institutional participation.
Partners we’re seeking
- Regional universities
- Private quarry owners
- Environmental and technology research organizations and nonprofits
Underway / No Site Selected
South Carolina Site Search
We are evaluating flooded and abandoned quarries in South Carolina to host Node Zero. A site moves forward only with a willing owner, the support of the community around it, and the state environmental and mining review the work requires.
Active Conversations / Support In Progress
Regional University Research Partners
We have active, working correspondence and pending professional connections with top researchers at local universities. Letters of support are being pursued, and a Fall 2026 capstone collaboration is in discussion. University research in aquatic and terrestrial ecology, environmental monitoring, and water-quality review is directly relevant wherever a Node is sited.
Future Node / Pisgah Bay
Tennessee Valley Authority
Pisgah Bay sits inside TVA's managed water system, so TVA review and an approved pathway are required before any Node can proceed there. Our inquiry with TVA Land Management is where that later work begins; it is not required for a South Carolina Node Zero.
Future Node / Pisgah Bay
U.S. Forest Service / Land Between the Lakes
We have an established primary Forest Service point of contact, with additional Land Between the Lakes staff part of the engagement path. USFS site access and review would be required for a Pisgah Bay Node, and no approval is represented as finalized.
Application Filed / Awaiting Outcome
ERDC / WERX Program
An ERDC/WERX BAA application was filed on January 14, 2026. The Army Corps of Engineers research pathway is relevant because Node Zero is framed as a field-testable infrastructure experiment. The application is pending, with no outcome reported here.
Future Node / Research Pathway
Kentucky Research Institutions
We have reached out to faculty and research staff at Kentucky research institutions, a complementary research pathway in watershed hydrology, environmental work, and civil engineering for the later Pisgah Bay Node.
Accountability First