A bill passed through the North Carolina House of Representatives recently that addresses some of the impacts data centers have on the environment, but a local water protection nonprofit said it doesn’t go far enough to protect the state’s waters.
Sound Rivers’ Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman said the organization generally focuses on local issues rather than bills before the General Assembly, but the construction and use of data centers will have an impact on eastern North Carolina waters
“I would definitely say that the bad seems to be outweighing the good,” she said. “Overall, we're decided that we're not in support of this bill because although it is taking some initial steps to address the impacts of data centers, steps are incomplete and there are some sections in the bill that were included seemingly in order to gain more bipartisan support. So, not exactly aligning with the goals that we would want to see for minimizing data center impacts.”
The bad provisions? Zimmerman said, “Some of these were fast-tracking environmental permits for fossil fuel projects, delaying the retirement of coal-fired power plants, and potentially eliminating Duke Energy's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
The bill would also require the NC Utilities Commission to certify a new nuclear plant before Duke Energy could shut down any of its coal plants. Zimmerman said it also includes only basic contract provisions rather than robust protections for ratepayers -- and does not address the issue of residents paying higher rates than industrial customers like data centers.
“This bill passed the House with some amendments and is getting sent back to the Senate, and with those amendments, they removed the overall ban of the evaporative cooling processes, which is the process that uses by far the most water, and instead are directing the Department of Environmental Quality to establish some rules dictating water usage,” she explained, “So just seems that it was getting less strong in those things that it was trying to do to protect our water resources.”
While she feels there are some good provisions in the bill, it doesn’t address Sound Rivers’ top concern. Zimmerman said, “Our biggest issue with these hyperscale data centers as a water quality organization is just how much water they are using and withdrawing from the rivers.”
Other issues of concern? Zimmerman said the legislation lacks provisions to address localized air pollution. Data centers typically rely on massive banks of diesel generators to provide backup power; those generators can emit high local concentrations of particulates that cause heart and lung disease.
She also notes the bill completely ignores much-needed restrictions on discharges of PFAS into regional water systems. “We're seeing all this research of all of the different wastewater contaminants that could be leaving these facilities, heavy metals, biocides, maybe PFAS. But in reality, at this point in time, we don't really know what contaminants are in the wastewater and what volumes because the current reporting requirements of currently operating facilities are not to the standards to have that public information available.”
However, Zimmerman said the idea to regulate data centers in North Carolina is a sound one. “It's just not what we want to see, but the fact that this bill exists in the first place just shows that our state is recognizing the need to better regulate this industry as new proposals for this keep flooding in,” she said.
