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As local governments across North Carolina are putting a pause on data centers, Durham County’s new moratorium has some problematic exceptions, according to Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop.

She was there for Monday night’s public hearing to discuss a nine-month moratorium on data-center development.

“This so-called moratorium has major loopholes,” Samantha said. “The moratorium allows for data centers that are 100,000 square feet or less, use closed-loop cooling systems and have non-diesel backup generators to go forward.” 

This is in contrast to the City of Durham’s recently passed moratorium that puts a 12-month halt to all new data-center development and expansion projects.

Before the public hearing, a coalition of organizers held a rally featuring speakers from local nonprofits and environmental justice leaders. Of the 63 speakers at the hearing, 61 pushed for a strong moratorium and against the draft moratorium with its significant loopholes/carveouts.

“During the meeting, we also learned that two data center proposals are already in the works in Durham County, and that together those would equal more than 100,000 square feet,” Samantha said. “Despite all of the comments against passing a moratorium with such a large carveout for big projects, the county Board of Commissioners passed the moratorium as drafted, with the loophole in place.”

Samantha said the Board appeared to have already made their decision before the hearing.

“In my opinion, the moratorium passed by the Durham County Board of Commissioners caters to Big Tech and seems to have been written to accommodate the data center proposals that are currently in the works,” she said. “We know that 100,000-square-feet data centers can carry as much as 100 megawatts, which qualifies by any definition as a hyperscale data center, and many definitions say just 40MW is hyperscale.”

Read the comment Samantha made at the hearing below.

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