In southern Fulton County, Georgia, predominantly Black communities have been pushing back against rapid data center expansion. 

Organizers like Yvonne Cole Boone have argued that the proposals for multiple data centers threaten local people and the environment. 

As Capital B News Atlanta reported in September, Boone first got involved with environmental advocacy after moving to South Fulton for a peaceful retirement in 2018. The news of 20 proposed data centers disrupted that peace, and she began speaking out against the development. 

Boone and her neighbors fear that the large data center expansion will result in extreme electricity and water use, excessive noise, and the removal of trees that contribute to valuable green space. 

"We deserve better," Boone told Capital B. "We're going to demand better." 

Georgia has become a hotbed for data center development. Yet, technology companies have yet to deliver the jobs and economic opportunities that they've promised and that residents need.

"They say they're going to bring jobs, but the jobs that they bring are not the jobs that are actually needed because they're not sustainable," resident and environmental advocate Andrea Young Jones told the outlet. "The construction that comes with building the data center is short-lived. Then, also, what is needed to run the center, lots of manpower, is not necessary."

As utilities appear to be affected by the energy-intensive operations of the centers and with rising energy costs expected in response, South Fulton and Union City residents have gathered to discuss their concerns. This region of Georgia, home to many majority Black communities, has already faced disproportionate economic and environmental impacts due to warehouse and heavy industry projects. 

At the heart of the data center issue is a lack of local control over land use in communities that have been historically targeted for industrial development, which has harmed ecosystems, well-being, and local economies for generations. And it's why residents around the country are taking local action to learn more about the potential impacts of data centers and fight for a say in whether, where, and how they're constructed.

In Georgia, advocates like Wanda Mosley with the Black Voters Matter Fund have hosted meetings to educate and inform locals about data center proposals and how to get involved with city planning processes. They insist that they're not anti-technology but simply want a voice in the matter.

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"We're being used as a dumping ground," Mosley told Capital B. "The people who approve these projects don't live near them. They don't hear the trucks, or see the damage to sidewalks, or deal with the traffic. We do."

So far, some of these community efforts have been successful, including the passage of a local ordinance regulating noise levels from data centers and the location of future data centers. Some lawmakers appear to be responding to residents' concerns. 

State Senator Chuck Hufstetler, for example, has been pushing for the passage of Senate Bill 34, which would "protect residential ratepayers from costs associated with data center infrastructure by prohibiting costs associated with fuel requirements, generation, and transmission from being included in general rates," according to the Georgia Recorder.

In LaGrange, Georgia, the City Council is also discussing new zoning regulations for future data center development.

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