Residents and commissioners press Alamance County to study zoning and water impacts ahead of data-center meeting

Emily Sutton, who identified herself as the Haw Riverkeeper, told the Alamance County Board of Commissioners the facilities being proposed are ‘‘different’’ from the small data centers the county has seen and said the county must evaluate water demand, zoning and sedimentation controls before any siting decisions. ‘‘A single hyper scale facility can use up to 5,000,000 gallons of water a day for cooling,’’ she said, adding that much of that water is lost to evaporation rather than returned to streams.

Sutton urged the board to consider a moratorium to buy time to get zoning and enforcement right and to evaluate whether Alamance should seek a locally delegated sediment- and erosion-control program rather than relying on the state regional office in Winston-Salem. She said locally delegated programs enable timely inspections and enforcement and noted that counties with their own programs can fund them through permit fees. Several commissioners echoed her concerns at the meeting, urging stronger ‘‘teeth’’ in the Unified Development Ordinance and broader community outreach before any countywide zoning change. ‘‘We have to get some teeth in our uniform development ordinance and our heavy industry development ordinance,’’ the vice chair said, stressing the need for enforceable standards before large projects move forward.

The board scheduled an informational forum on data centers for Aug. 17 and discussed next steps including finishing the unified development ordinance and taking community feedback. Commissioners noted they cannot apply new rules retroactively to already-approved developments and emphasized the need to balance environmental protections with planning and community input. The commission did not adopt new restrictions at the meeting; members directed staff and the county attorney to continue research and prepare options for future consideration.