In Lawrence, Kansas, residents have filed a lawsuit against a company wanting to build a $12 billion data center after zoning was tentatively approved in May.
The massive facility would occupy nearly 2 million square feet and house approximately 5,000 computer servers in western Wyandotte County, as the Kansas Reflector explained.
If built, it would hold the record for the largest development in the county's history.
While some proponents argue that the facility would generate needed tax revenue, residents remain concerned about its environmental impacts.
The plaintiffs claimed the Unified Government should not have switched zoning from residential to commercial and that the commission reviewed processes "without sufficient study of short- and long-term impacts."
A district judge denied the government's proposal to "dismiss the plaintiff's case against the south tract," but determined the one for the north tract could go ahead if a decision is made on the zoning terms.
As more data centers are being built to meet the increasing demands of artificial intelligence, this is raising energy bills and raising concerns about environmental damage.
Meanwhile, residents living near certain centers have said they've experienced insomnia, heart issues, hearing loss, and respiratory problems, among others, due to the sites. Notably, these centers require substantial energy and water to operate.
"AI likes to represent itself as a clean technology, but AI must be powered by the grid," Alex Boynton, a professor of environmental ethics at the University of Kansas, told Kansas Reflector.
"There are significant parts of the U.S. grid that are still run by fossil fuel energy, which calls into question the validity of those claims."
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Extremely 😫 However, data centers will remain prevalent for the foreseeable future, but companies should consider environmental impacts while protecting their bottom lines.
"We need to take a long, hard look into the environmental consequences and a long, hard look into the benefits, and whether or not they'll include everybody," Boynton added.
"I'm not anti-data center," Steve Sessions, a community organizer with the We the People of Wyco Facebook page, said.
"We obviously need these and they are revenue generators, but the way it's presented is not truthful. It is not how we should be allowing businesses to do business in our community."
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