The Microsoft data center construction site surrounds this Conover neighborhood on three sides. For Hannah Mullis, it’s a jarring change from where she grew up.
“We're in a rural area, so it's kind of like they're deforesting all the trees, getting rid of that, and they're trying to make it into something that it's not, that it's never going to be,” Mullis said.
Mullis says dust from the construction has built up around her family’s home, forcing her mother to pressure wash the outside several times a month. The pollution poses a major problem for her family, which suffers from asthma.
"The air pollution specifically, I think that’s what’s killing this neighborhood at least,” Mullis said.
But once construction ends, her concerns will not disappear. They will just change. She worries about traffic, noise, lights at night and what the project could mean for the feel of the neighborhood.
As conversations about data centers continue across the country, Mullis says it’s important to remember the impact can be concentrated in a single neighborhood less than 100 feet from a data center.
