House committee probes water and permitting risks of proposed data centers in H.727

The Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure committee on Feb. 18 continued testimony on H.727, an act relating to sustainable data center deployment, with state environmental officials and agency staff describing how existing statutes and permits would apply to large data-center projects.

Why it matters: Witnesses told lawmakers that the water demands and cooling-water discharges of modern data centers can be substantial, and that state and local permitting — including Act 250 review, groundwater and surface-water permitting and NPDES discharge permits — are the primary tools for managing those impacts. Committee members pressed for clearer thresholds and monitoring requirements as drought and river-temperature concerns grow.

Kevin Burke, director of the DEC Watershed Management Division, told the committee that "data centers, like any other commercial project, would trigger the typical environmental permits, including stormwater permits for impervious surface, construction permits, potentially…