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The presentation of a Data Center Advisory Committee report to Edgecombe County commissioners came with the advice to research thoroughly before making any decisions about welcoming a data center to Kingsboro Business Park.

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, one of the members of the advisory committee, was on hand Monday night when County Manager Eric Evans delivered the report to the board.

“Eric Evans did a presentation on the full report packet that was put together, gave a summary of the advisory group’s work, and he shared some of his final recommendations based on our recommendations,” Katey said. “He basically said it would be a wise decision to not make any decisions right now about data centers and take the time to fully go through the report and all of the research that has been compiled. The commissioners seemed pretty receptive.”

The advisory committee was created earlier this year in response to a proposal by Energy Storage Solutions to construct a hyperscale data center in the Kingsboro Business Park, which received a storm of pushback from the local community.

As committee members, Katey and other community stakeholders, including several from the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability (ENDCA) group, created an information library, sharing articles and resources about data centers and their impacts, and provided recommendations relating to data centers for the county moving forward.

“To my understanding, the board is going to be going through the report and taking some more time,” Katey said. “They still don’t have any type of application, proof of funding or full proposal from Energy Storage Solutions.”

Katey said the recommendation with the most support from the advisory committee was a ban on hyperscale data centers in Edgecombe County.

“It was very much stressed upon during the whole meeting,” Katey said. “Some of the key reasons are the technology these facilities are currently using and the state’s rulemaking hasn’t caught up to the point of being able to adequately protect our communities from this industry.”

A recent attempt by the N.C. General Assembly to put protections in place with Senate Bill 730, or the Ratepayer Protection Act, makes some headway by requiring sound-impact analysis, prohibiting the use of eminent domain for powers of local governments — meaning they can’t give away land to developers — requiring DEQ to adopt certain standards for surface water and groundwater and banning the use of evaporative cooling systems, which use the most water.

However, the bill fails to guarantee energy ratepayer protections and does not include any protections for water ratepayers, in addition to not addressing air pollution and restricting the discharge of PFAs, cancer-linked chemicals sometimes used in the cooling process. Documented impacts from hyperscale data centers include rate hikes from utilities’ infrastructure expansion to accommodate data centers demand on those systems.

In addition to the advisory committee’s report, ENDCA member and Kingsboro resident Janice Bullock presented a 1,600-signature petition objecting to data-center development in Edgecombe County.

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