What’s at Stake? Your health, finances, quality of life

The air quality impacts of data centers range from the regional impacts of mercury, NOx, SOx and particulate emissions from the new power plants required to run them to the localized toxic emissions from back up power systems which are often diesel generators or small gas turbines. These are pollutants that contribute to asthma, COPD, strokes, heart disease, cancer, and immune and neurological illness. Some of their associated hazardous air pollutant emissions contribute to reproductive problems.

And now data centers bring three other types of pollution that can decimate an urban environment like ours: heat, noise, and infrasound. While the other pollutants are governed by federal law, these pollutants the city can regulate.

The St. Louis data center proposal is for a 120MW (megawatt) hyperscale data center which will be linking millions of microchips together in the same space to run generative AI (these are not the kind of data centers that store your photos and tax returns). 

Almost all of the electricity running a data center is converted to heat. Because of this, cooling data centers demands an insane quantity of water, most of which is lost as steam. Visionaries in Europe are contemplating using the waste heat from data centers to heat buildings. That is not an option here yet. However, data centers make heat 24 hours/day 365 days/year and there are nine months per year in our region when excessive heat is a public health threat not an asset. This is why data centers do not need to be centralized on existing heat islands. 

People are concerned that the data center could cause an 18 degree fahrenheit increase in ambient temperature with a higher heat density than steel forges or aluminum smelters. Cool roofs and trees alone cannot abate this. And few trees can even live in extreme heat. 

Hyperscale data centers cannot overheat or they will fail. As a result, they are equipped with large fans, pumps, and mechanical apparatus that contribute to a continual hum.  Now that the nation has dozens of existing data centers, their impacts are being felt and heard in communities everywhere. With a quick internet search, you’ll find communities whose well water is tainted or gone, health complaints, and, notably, electric bill increases as high as 267%. The peace and quiet in rural areas is disrupted, and the noisy urban environment, which now knows moments of silence during the darkest of night or when snowfall has stilled the highways, will be lost to a constant hum from a never resting data center.

Low-Frequency Soundwave Pollution

In addition, vibrations from this equipment can create low frequency sound waves below 20 Hz called infrasound. The sound pressure infrasound creates can be felt even if it cannot be heard. Infrasound is below our ability to hear it, yet is detectable by its effects which can include dizziness, nausea, and discomfort. These low frequency sound waves have long wavelengths and can travel over long distances. Studies have shown that exposure to these frequencies can disrupt sleep, memory, cognitive function, and mood. This is why we should protect residences, schools, and hospitals from data center impacts.