A number of citizens urged elected to go slow on expanding data centers.
Frederick, Md (KM) A large number of people attended a public hearing before the Frederick County Council Tuesday night on an amended bill to set up an overlay on land designed for data centers. This would be for properties outside the former Eastalco site in Adamstown where data centers are already under construction.
Many of those who spoke, such as Johanna Springston, urged the Council to slow down on any data center legislation. “Why hasn’t the county obtained a cost-benefit analysis,” she asked. :”The SAGE report paid for by the Maryland Tech Council is biased in favor of the industry It just focuses on all the benefits and none of the costs that we are seeing the data industry bring to communities all over the country.”
Elizabeth Bauer with Envision Frederick Count said the latest Joint City and County Climate and Energy Action Plan calls data centers the largest source of projected greenhouse gas emissions in the county. “We simply do not know how expansion of the data center industry is going to impact the county’s ability to achieve its climate and renewable energy goals, to preserve its water resources, its air quality, its agricultural sector,” she said.
Data centers use a lot of water and electricity.
Like many citizens who spoke, Bauer urged the Council to slow down when it comes to data centers. “Why are rushing? We’ve not had a cost-benefit analysis of this. We don’t know what the expenses are going to be as we move forward with this. We hear about all the jobs; we hear about all the revenue. But where the facts to support that,” she asked.
Under this bill, for every one acre lost to agriculture for data centers five acres would be preserved. Also, data centers are expected to take up about one percent of the land in Frederick County.
During the hearing, Rick Weldon, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, said data centers are here to stay. “It’s going to happen. It’s going to continue to happen as long as we live a life dependent on information, artificial intelligence. the management and storage of that information” he said. “It will strengthen Frederick County’s future competitiveness from an economic standpoint; from an employment standpoint.”
Opponents of data centers point to Northern Virginia where there were few restrictions on data centers and they were allowed to proliferate. “This overlay., had something like that been adopted in Loudon County., we would not see the digital alley we all see and complain about,” Weldon said.
A vote on this bill by the Council is expected at a later date.
By Kevin McManus