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Residents urge moratorium or ban on data centers, cite water, noise and health concerns
Summary
Dozens of Randolph County residents urged commissioners to ban or pause consideration of data centers, citing groundwater and river impacts, continuous low-frequency noise, harm to livestock and wildlife, and limited long-term jobs; speakers asked for moratoriums, lower allowable noise and stronger decommissioning rules.
Dozens of residents packed the county meeting to oppose possible data centers in Randolph County and to press commissioners for stronger protections or an outright ban.
"Data centers will will only make that worse even if the senate bill passes, like, we we must go further," said Hannah Wright, a resident of Asheboro, urging stricter local limits and a moratorium if necessary. Several speakers made similar arguments about water and noise: Mike Ade, representing Randleman interests, warned that a large data center can withdraw on the order of "1,000,000 gallons per day," and multiple residents described persistent low-frequency noise that they said had affected health and livestock in other counties.
Speakers asked for measures the county adopted in draft form — closed-loop cooling, decommissioning guarantees and expanded buffers — to be strengthened. Donna Hughes, who said she grew up in the country and represents clients as a real-estate agent, told commissioners, "I don't know why we would ever ever ever need to approve a data center, so you guys be thinking on this." Several callers urged a temporary moratorium while the county writes and tests its new rules, pointing to litigation in nearby Chatham County when moratoria were adopted or challenged.
County staff and several commissioners responded that the draft ordinance is intended to put strict requirements in place now so the county will have regulatory tools if an application arrives, and that a separate public hearing on data centers will be scheduled for additional input.
