Concerns raised over potential data centers in Harrison County

Reading about the Harrison County Improvement Corporation meeting 14 April (“CIC discusses data centers and the community impact”), I was troubled to see that the corporation does not seem to understand the impact of data centers. One member equated their environmental impact to “solar panels.” The corporation stated they would be open to data centers that “bring their own power.”

There is a preponderance of evidence from communities across the country that data centers damage not only the immediate infrastructure by drawing off the power grid (the opposite of solar panels, I would add) and adding to noise pollution, but also do long term environmental damage due to their need for massive amounts of water for cooling. The water demands alone would stress Harrison County’s aquifers which are already suffering from fracking.

Communities with data centers have seen their electrical bills spike, their water become undrinkable or heavily metered and their quiet destroyed. The bitcoin mine outside Hopedale generates enough noise to be heard five miles away. Imagine what a data center would do.

Since the mid-1800s, Harrison County has been stripped of its resources by people outside the county. First coal mines, then oil rigs, strip mines and fracking. Are we going to add data centers, too? All for the illusion that “capital investment” will turn things around? I urge the members of the CIC to learn more about the impact of data centers and use their platform to educate the public.

Jonathan Bratten

Hopedale

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