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Water, power, noise and EMF questions surface; officials point to site‑by‑site mitigation
Summary
Task force members pressed industry and local officials on water use, utility rate impacts, noise and electromagnetic field concerns; industry and municipal speakers said many impacts are addressed through closed‑loop cooling, developer‑funded grid upgrades and buffer/mitigation measures, and recommended technical reviews by regulators where needed.
Task force members pressed panels on resource and health concerns associated with data centers. Bill Cork and local mayors repeatedly said many projects use dedicated transmission substations, closed‑loop cooling or recycled water and that Entergy and Mississippi Power have participated in planning. "100% of the water used at the Canton facilities will be recycled," Cork said in response to water‑use concerns.
Speakers acknowledged temporary construction noise has contributed to complaints in some locations (Southaven was cited as an example), and described mitigation such as acoustic enclosures, vegetated berms and generator enclosures. When electromagnetic fields (EMF) were raised, industry and local officials said they had not encountered known health impacts in operational sites and recommended deferring to technical regulators (MDEQ and utility engineers) for measurements and standards. Compass added it monitors EMF for operational integrity because high EMF can disrupt servers.
Task force members and presenters agreed on two practical points: (1) resource and rate implications are site‑specific and belong in technical dockets and environmental reviews, and (2) communities and developers can negotiate enforceable mitigation and monitoring terms into conditional use agreements or ordinances.
