Water, Closed-Loops, and Lawsuits
Interesting news on the Spartanburg Data Center Front
‘“Anybody who drives past that site on South Pine Street will have no doubt in his or her mind that this is a major development in any conceivable sense of the word,” SELC attorney Frank Holleman said.”
I’ve been writing about perception-before-ethics (in my work, it’s closer to Stein’s empathy-before-ethics framework) since the beginning of Carolina Ecology last summer. This quote from the article below drives some of that home. I frequently pass by the Northmark data center construction on South Pine, and I’m always fascinated by the amount of work being done there to chop down trees, set up turbines, chop more trees, and transform the old Kohler plant into an AI creature. Plus, all of the county staff being used for security.
We’re being told by the County Council that this is a minor development, but our eyes and perception clearly indicate it’s anything but minor.
‘“By violating its own ordinances, Spartanburg County is denying its own citizens full public information and airing of this proposed data center, and is denying them a public proceeding where this proposed development would be openly discussed and debated,” Holleman said.”
Again, transparency goes a long way. As does perceiving rightly.
“Historically, the County has consistently categorized industrial sites on a single parcel of land (not subdivided) as Minor Land Developments,” Alverson said in an email, and added in a follow-up that “The plain meaning of industrial parks involve more than one parcel of land.”
If our city and county councils aren’t going to offer a moratorium on billion-dollar NDA’d data centers, perhaps a good step would be to amend our land management ordinances to always default data centers as major projects.
Couple of interesting articles this morning on the data-center front here in Spartanburg…
Despite pushback, data centers are booming — and these Upstate companies are betting on them - Post & Courier (archive link)
According to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental and Energy Study Institute, large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day for cooling purposes — the same amount used by a town of between 10,000 and 50,000 people, which is around the population of Spartanburg.
Some companies already are employing closed-loop systems, like those from Airsys, to cut their water usage. The NorthMark data center being built on Pine Street is set to use a closed-loop system for part of its facility, but it will use evaporative cooling for another section, so it expects to use 460,000 gallons daily.
and…
As SELC sues Spartanburg County over data center development, officials defend their actions - Post & Courier (archive link)
The suit, filed on July 6 on behalf of several residents, accuses the county of wrongfully treating the 457-megawatt data center on Pine Street as two minor land developments instead of a major development. The data center is expected to be a large source of formaldehyde and fine particulate matter, causing nearby residents to worry about its impact on their health.
The suit asks the court to stop the county from processing minor land development permits for the site and declare the data center a major land development instead.