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Residents urge stricter conditions and transparency for proposed data center project
Summary
Several residents and online commenters urged the commission to demand stronger protections — including water‑use limits, decommissioning bonds, LEED/green cooling preferences, noise monitoring and expanded setbacks — and some cited an MDE application they said describes a large multi‑campus project on Constellation Energy property.
During the public-comment period multiple residents urged the commission to tighten proposed data center conditions or pause action pending more study. Susan Dezurek said she had obtained an MDE application and read details she said the application included: "The project includes the construction of 3 campuses with a total of 7 buildings, totaling 225,000 square feet and 500 megawatts of data capacity," and urged the county to hire stronger consultants and rethink the approach.
Other speakers asked that staff require liquid cooling over evaporative cooling, bonds to cover decommissioning and thermal discharges, strict compliance with MDE and county noise ordinances, on-site air-quality monitoring, and more public outreach than two successive newspaper advertisements. An online commenter (Joseph Cormier) asked whether staff solicited industry feedback before public review and urged stronger enforcement tools, saying "It needs to be a complete stop work order when these are violated." Staff acknowledged many substantive questions remain and reiterated the commission's role in compiling and forwarding comments.
