This is my comment submitted to the Salem City Council for the meeting regarding a proposed data center at Mill Creek Corporate Center, future data center proposals and whether the Salem city council should sign NDAs regarding data centers.
Comment:
My name is [redacted] and I live in [redacted].
Data centers provide little to the communities in which they reside and have been shown via multiple studies by universities and other state governments that they cause more harm than good. Washington State Department Of Ecology, Cambridge University and the University Of Chicago are three examples that have run such studies.
The University of Chicago and The WA department of ecology outline the impacts of data centers on air, water, and ground around the sites. The impacts include diesel air pollution, water extraction and pollution, chemical runoff that affects water and soil, hazardous waste disposal, and surges in use of the power grid which can greatly increase power costs in the area.
There are also several incidents where data centers have not been truthful about their potential pollution, potential temperature increases, local infrastructure needs, and other negative impacts to an area. There are university studies from Cambridge as well as others on data centers in Europe and Central America which have had anomalic temperature increases, likely due to the data centers in the area, of 3.6 degrees on average and can span 6 miles or more.
In Oregon alone, data centers have cost millions of dollars in taxes in such areas as Hillsboro and Prineville according to local news outlets. Because of these losses and harmful practices, it is necessary for there to be public input on data centers entering the area, this includes the potential data center in Mill Creek.
It is also necessary for city council members to remain transparent in their dealings with companies such as Verrus and not sign NDAs. If a company will be controversial and have such great impacts on an area of Salem, we should be able to comment on and understand fully what is happening in conversations between city council and the company.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.