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Resident testimony raises health and environmental concerns about data centers
Summary
Multiple public commenters cited lawsuits and regulatory actions elsewhere and asked the city to refuse further data-center development or to assume liability for potential harms; commenters pointed to legal reversals, EPA actions, and localized environmental anecdotes.
At the July 23 Trenton City Council meeting, public commenters emphasized environmental, wildlife and health risks they associate with large data centers and urged council to stop further approvals.
"Has anybody looked at what's going on in Texas...? The water that's coming out brown...That's what you guys are bringing to this town," one resident said, listing alleged examples from Wyoming, Texas and the U.K. The same speaker asked council for a clear statement about whether the city would accept liability if health problems occurred and said: "Are you guys willing to step up and take the responsibility if something happens to my 2 kids?"
Lori Blankenship, another commenter, pointed to recent rulings and regulatory moves in other jurisdictions and said the Ohio EPA had declined to issue a general MPDS permit for data centers. "When the state environmental agency...decides that there's no to a general permit, it means there's enough concern to know that it shouldn't be rubber stamped to go through," she said.
Council did not take a final vote on any development approvals at the meeting; it tabled two unfinished-business items tied to property and annexation (see "Votes at a glance"). The comments reflected a mix of legal, environmental and anecdotal claims that would require technical or legal verification beyond the meeting record.
