Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Hermantown residents urge council to reconsider proposed ‘hyper‑scale’ data center, citing wastewater, emissions and transparency concerns
Summary
Multiple Hermantown residents told the city council the AUAR for a proposed hyper‑scale data center lacks sufficient environmental review, raising concerns about wastewater pretreatment (they cited 50,000 gallons per day), greenhouse‑gas estimates and electronic waste handling; residents also asked for greater transparency on project financing and noted ongoing litigation.
Residents opposed to a proposed hyper‑scale data center told the Hermantown City Council that the city’s current environmental review is inadequate and asked elected officials to bring the community more fully into project decisions.
At the general public‑comment portion of the meeting, several speakers outlined technical and procedural concerns about the AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review) for the project. Ben Neeson said the AUAR lacks pretreatment plans for cooling‑system discharge and asserted that “50,000 gallons per day of domestic wastewater is gonna be treated at the Duluth wastewater treatment facility” without onsite pretreatment. He also challenged an emissions estimate in the AUAR, saying the report’s 18,248‑ton figure “is just…based on typical light industrial use” and not tied to an 1,800,000‑square‑foot data…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
