News

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman was on hand at the Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners meeting this week to talk about data centers and water quality.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Katey, along with four others, raised questions about the proposal to build a $19 million, 900-megawatt data center in Kingsboro.

“What I talked about was all water-quality and -quantity around data centers and shared a list of questions that are still unknowns about this particular proposal because we haven’t gotten any more information about it,” Katey said. “These are basic questions that the board should be able to answer before voting on the sale: how much water the data center is going to actually use, how many contaminants are going to be in the wastewater, and whether Rocky Mount is able to handle all of that wastewater, especially if PFAS are in the mix.”

PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are also known as “forever chemicals” because most do not break down. They are used in manufacturing processes and waste storage and treatment sites, but are also present in fluoride gases used by data centers to cool super-heated water before it is discharged.

PFAS are endocrine disrupting chemicals, meaning they interfere with hormone systems. They’ve been linked to cancers, liver and thyroid problems, reproductive problems and more.

Communities near industrial facilities using PFAS have experienced groundwater and drinking water contamination as a result of their proximity to these facilities.

Katey said Edgecombe County Manager Eric Evans spoke to commissioners about data he’s collected on data centers.

“Before the meeting, Eric Evans shared a presentation, basically an update on the county’s due diligence about data centers,” Katey said. “He talked about the advisory group that he’s putting together — a data center stakeholder group — with the goal of better understanding the concerns about data centers and to determine if the concerns can be addressed.”

Evans also shared the results of a survey he had conducted with more than 300 members of the community: 83% of respondents said they were opposed to any data center development, while 82% were concerned about impacts a data center would have on utility rates.

When asked about other concerns not included in the survey, 123 respondents listed environmental impacts.

“That means a lot of people are interested in how the data center is going to impact the environment,” Katey said. “The overall good news is that it’s not imminent. The board chairman said the vote on selling the land won’t happen before the advisory group has an opportunity to meet and give feedback, so we can take a breath and know that it’s not going to be on the agenda next month.”

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