Resident urges Mahwah to ban data centers, citing water, energy and environmental concerns

Anne Powley, a Mahwah resident, used the meeting’s public-comment period to warn about the local impacts of large data centers and AI computing facilities and urged the Council to consider local restrictions.

Powley said she had prepared an attached report and “urged the Council to adopt a proactive approach towards forthcoming projects of this kind,” expressing concern about water consumption, electricity demand, noise and potential pollution. The handout—entered as part of the meeting record and summarized by Powley—argued that data centers can consume vast amounts of treated water for cooling, put pressure on regional electricity supplies, and release wastewater and airborne mist that could affect local treatment systems and nearby vegetation. The document also listed municipalities around New Jersey that have enacted moratoria or bans and included sample ordinance language intended for local adoption.

Council President Robert M. Ferguson acknowledged the concern and recommended that Powley submit her materials to the Township Ordinance Committee for further review. Councilmember May asked the Township Engineer to provide information about current water-capacity usage. Business Administrator Benjamin Kezmarsky said there is no timeline for action and that the Township Engineer will coordinate a traffic study for other neighborhood concerns, but that the Ordinance Committee would be the vehicle to review Powley’s data-center proposals.

What was before the Council was a resident plea and supporting documentation; the Council did not vote on new zoning or moratoria at the June 8 meeting and instead referred the material to the Ordinance Committee. Any future policy change — for example, amending municipal zoning to make data centers a non-permitted use — would require ordinance drafting, public hearings and Council votes.

The concerns raised at the meeting and in the attached report included specific quantitative claims (for example, sample citations in the attachment about multi-million-gallon-per-day water uses for very large facilities). Those figures were included in the resident’s handout; the Council and staff did not adopt or verify those numbers at the meeting and directed staff to provide technical information (including current water-capacity data) before any policy action is taken.