Comment by ModernMech
14 days ago
A data center turns the whole town into an industrial zone because of the sound and water pollution. No one wants to live near one, especially not doctors and teachers with young families who can choose to live anywhere.
Data centers don’t cause water pollution generally or turn entire towns into industrial zones. There is more than enough room in rural WI towns for industrial and non industrial parts.
> No one wants to live near one, especially not doctors and teachers with young families who can choose to live anywhere.
Northern Virginia is one of the top locations for the kind of people who “can live anywhere” and is the world capital of data centers. And part of that appeal in NoVA is low property taxes due to data centers paying taxes.
There is some real aspects of the data center debate but I don’t think your engaging with them
What do you call it when they install 100s of generators outside the building to provide power, create an amazing amount of noise, and a fair bit of pollution, while they claim they are temporary and turn them off 1 day out of 365?
Not to mention consuming quite a bit of water to provide cheaper cooling, instead of using closed loop systems.
If your against on site natural gas I think there is real arguments there and maybe it should be banned.
But there’s a difference to that and being just straight up against data centers or anything being built.
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I mean, how do you explain the backlash then if their byproducts don't generally bother people?
> Northern Virginia is one of the top locations for the kind of people who “can live anywhere” and is the world capital of data centers.
People live in NoVa despite data centers, not because of them. Its proximity to DC makes it intrinsically attractive. Towns in rural nowhere don't have the same innate draw and I don't see how datacenters provide it.
> I mean, how do you explain the backlash then if their byproducts don't generally bother people?
I think the general populace has pretty irrational political stances. For example in NYC where I live "gentrification is bad because it will raise the rent" is a fairly common stance, despite the cause of high rent being restricted housing supply. There's a popular case of residents being OK with a truck stop but blocking any new housing [1].
Congestion pricing was incredibly unpopular and controversial, despite most New Yorkers not being drivers and the policy being very effective in many other cities. Now it's extremely popular.
There is also just a lot misinformation that goes around, the water aspect being one of them. Data center use something like 1/8th the water of the California Almond industry [2]. There is some limited indications anti data center sentiment is spread by US adversaries [3].
[1]. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/nyregion/harlem-truck-dep... [2]. https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/data-centers-less-wa... [3]. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...
Merced has a datacenter.