About 25 miles north of Manhattan, at the end of a quiet suburban cul-de-sac, sits DataBank’s Orangeburg Campus: the self-described “pre-eminent NYC-area data center.”
DataBank—a Dallas-based, private-equity-backed data center company with 75 locations—is hoping to expand this facility, but some nearby residents have banded together to try to stop them. Residents are worried that the expanded data center could strain the electrical grid, damage protected wetlands, and contaminate a key drinking water reservoir.
DataBank recently completed “Phase I” of the Orangeburg Campus, which has been leased to an AI company called CoreWeave. “Phase II,” which would add a second data center facility on the site along with eight additional diesel backup generators, is what’s currently up for debate.
DataBank’s Orangeburg Campus sits on the shore of Lake Tappan Reservoir, a drinking water reservoir operated by Veolia. Veolia provides water to New York customers in Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Tioga counties, and New Jersey customers in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Union, Morris counties.
The data center is located in Orangetown, New York, directly on the New Jersey border. Orangetown’s population is just under 50,000, according to the U.S Census Bureau.
On Wednesday, the Town of Orangetown Planning Board held a meeting to discuss DataBank’s expansion plan. Community members came out in droves to speak against the expansion and voice their concerns. Roughly 80 members of the public attended the meeting, many wearing stickers that said “Save Lake Tappan.”
With only about 30 seats prepared, some community members stood in the back, sat on the floor, or watched through open doors from the hallway and parking lot. A police officer on the scene said it was the busiest planning board meeting he’d seen recently.
During the public comment section, more than twenty attendees spoke against the proposal. Only one attendee spoke in favor of it, who said the “local guys” he grew up with “all work jobs in data centers.”
“The fact is, they’re building these because this is a growing area of employment,” said Sean Nath, the lone attendee who spoke in favor of DataBank. “Ill advised nimbyism is not going to create the jobs of the future.”
The planning board did not reach a decision about the proposal on Wednesday. The board asked DataBank representatives to return on an undetermined date with more information.
At the end of the meeting, the board told DataBank representatives: “You’ve got your work cut out for you.”
Over the last few years, there has been a massive surge of data center construction across the country to accommodate the rise of generative AI. At the same time, local opposition to data centers has exploded due to concerns about energy use, water consumption, and pollution.
In an effort to address these concerns, temporary moratoriums on data center construction have been proposed by lawmakers at both the state level in New York and at the federal level.
Manhattan State Senator Liz Krueger, who proposed a three year data center moratorium, told The Footprint that she is worried about the impact of data centers, like DataBank’s Orangeburg Campus, on the power grid.
“Large-scale data centers in any part of our state affect New Yorkers in every part of our state, because they drive up the cost of electricity, massively increase the need to expand electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, and increase our reliance on price-volatile and planet-warming fossil fuels,” Krueger said.
Krueger said “the downstate region is particularly constrained in terms of generation resources,” which makes it “a particularly bad place to site massive new demand that provides little-to-no economic benefit or jobs.”
At a press conference before the planning board meeting, local residents and advocates echoed Krueger’s concern about electricity costs.
“Our electric and gas rates already went up 70%,” said Pascal Jean-Gilles, the co-chair of Indivisible Rockland. “This will not help that.”
DataBank representatives said the total electricity use of their Orangeburg Campus would be 45 megawatts if Phase II is built.
According to Marc Conte, an economics professor at Fordham University who has studied the economic and environmental impacts of data centers, 45 megawatts of power is enough to support “around 57,000 households based on average electricity consumption in New York State.”
Conte said that DataBank’s Orangeburg Campus is much smaller than some of the hyperscale AI data centers being built, but given the relatively low population of Orangetown and Rockland County it “represents a substantial amount of potential electricity demand.”
For comparison, Meta’s massive planned data center in Louisiana will have a capacity of 5,000 megawatts.
In Western New York, another planned data center that has faced local backlash will use 500 megawatts.
The proposed data center moratorium in New York State would apply to all projects with a capacity of 20 megawatts or more.
Other local residents and advocates raised concerns about potential contamination of the reservoir, sound pollution, air pollution, and damage to sensitive wetlands.
“It just defies common sense to site a data center that includes backup fuel tanks and electrical equipment right next to a public drinking water reservoir,” said a spokesperson for the Sierra Club. “The possibility of contamination of Lake Tappan from leaking tanks or from an electric fire is very real.”
“Phase I should have never been built, that was the first mistake,” said Chris Kielbiowski, a New Jersey resident whose backyard lies just across state lines from DataBank. “Now we’re repeating that mistake again.”
Kielbiowski and his neighbor have hired an attorney, Clifford Davis, to express their opposition.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Davis claimed that the project application “is not a permitted use” in the zoning district.
Joyce Fan, another New Jersey resident whose property borders the site, said she already suffers from noise pollution caused by a nearby data center. Bloomberg L.P. operates a data center next door that opened around 2014.
“If 10 years of generator noise has already affected our quality of life, what happens when more generators are added on top of that?” Fan asked. “We understand that development happens, but it cannot come at the cost of our quality of life.”
After listening to residents’ concerns during the public comment period, a DataBank representative described what they heard as “misinformation.”
“It’s not your role to assess morality,” a DataBank representative told the planning board.
DataBank claims the Orangeburg campus “will not contribute to electricity price increases for area residents,” because “the site already had committed power prior to development, meaning no new demand is being placed on the regional grid.”
Regarding water contamination, DataBank claims that “runoff mitigation plans are in place to protect the surrounding environment, including the wetlands and water resources in the area.”
“When measured against the building that previously occupied this site, DataBank’s facility will be more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly,” according to DataBank.
However, Conte said that DataBank’s use of diesel generators rather than renewable energy sources for backup power is problematic.
“There’s no question that prolonged use of diesel generators generates local air pollutants that can be hazardous to the health of local community residents,” Conte said. “Renewable energy sources should be used for backup power to avoid adverse health effects and greenhouse gas emissions.”
“This board is not doing anything tonight other than waiting for them to come back with more information,” the planning board said at the end of the meeting. “So nothing will be resolved tonight other than that they will come back another time.”
“We’ll be here too,” someone shouted from the crowd.
In order to move forward with Phase II, DataBank also requires approval from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) for two permit applications.
A spokesperson for NYSDEC said the agency is “currently reviewing” applications from DataBank for “an Air State Facility modification associated with the installation of backup generators and a Freshwater Wetland permit for proposed impacts to a State regulated Freshwater Wetland.”
If those permit applications are deemed complete, the public will have an opportunity to submit comments to NYSDEC during a public comment period.
NY needs a lot of things….and data centers isn’t one of them.