LETTER: Data center cheerleaders are avoiding the hard questions

To Ozaukee Press:

As we are heading to the cliff’s edge with ground to be broken soon, it might be a good time to pump the brakes on the data center before it is absolutely too late. Not necessarily stop it, but I don’t think all the concerns have been answered. 

All we see publicly is a rosy future. Never mind the promise of a property tax break. Most of us are not blind to the fact that other communities are grappling with large increases in electric bills caused by data centers that outweigh any tax break. The cheerleaders are touting the closed-loop water cooling system. That doesn’t alleviate water concerns. In a true loop water system, there is the initial fill during construction, which includes added chemicals for corrosion and scale buildup. Water is added to compensate for leaks and periodic draining for maintenance. Where will this used, chemical-laden water go? Into our sewage treatment plant and into the lake? A holding pond with the possibility of spillage? A holding tank? It has to go somewhere. The water is unsuitable for drinking and agricultural use. Was there a study of the water tables and surrounding wells? 

It was announced last month that the present administration is fast tracking the review of chemicals, including those used by data centers. The language calls for the EPA to ease and reduce regulations to speed things along that are “gumming up the works,” including approving “new chemicals.” 

Some of the chemicals used in data centers are PFAS, glycols, lubricants,  lead-acid battery fluids, diesel for generators and hydrocarbon refrigerants. PFAS (forever chemicals) were fast tracked in  less than a month when first rolled out. They are used in the manufacture of the semiconductors that power the computers housed in the data centers. 

Now states, including Wisconsin, are dealing with the aftermath of PFAS  Will our updated treatment plant be able to handle PFAS and  the new unnamed chemicals? Traditional treatment plants can’t remove them. During our next 100-year rainfall,  which is happening with increased frequency, will they be released into the lake along with the raw sewage? 

The data center complex will amount to 2.5 million square feet that has to be kept meticulously clean. How much cleaning solvent will be flushed down the drain? Will our thriving charter fishing industry be collateral damage in the coming years? 

I have yet to hear if any of our elected officials have been in contact with communities that have data centers running.  The sunny vision they’re pushing is a surrounding forest where daisies grow, deer frolic and the peasants toast each other with sparkling clean water in celebration of the great luck of a $200 a year tax break. Cheers!

 Colleen Hanson-Harvey

Port Washington