Resident raises environmental and economic concerns about data centers and AI computing demands

At the public-comment portion of the meeting, Mary Burgess urged county leaders and residents to consider the environmental and economic impacts of large data centers that host artificial-intelligence compute.

Burgess described compute centers as “beast buildings” that require vast electricity to cool the equipment and substantial water resources, and warned that only a few companies control access to specialized chips and the compute capacity that powers modern AI systems. “Compute is ... very expensive guessing,” she said, describing AI as driven by high-volume processing and predicting further rapid expansion of data centers.

She asked why environmental groups were not more visible in opposing new facilities and suggested local elected and appointed officials are approving data centers quickly without full research or impact statements. Burgess also raised economic concerns, saying AI-driven content and automation may harm jobs and the diversity of ideas online.

Her remarks were made during the public-comment period and did not prompt a staff response or a formal commission action at the meeting.