Data Centers and Our Coast

Lately, every time we open a newspaper we see a story about community concerns regarding large data centers. This is happening across the US, including here in coastal Georgia. 

Across our coast, residents have packed meetings to express their opposition and outrage. They are smart. They know that data centers will drain our limited water resources, spike our electricity prices, pave over our wetlands, and diminish our coastal quality of life. Camden County, Kingsland, and (just last night) Garden City wisely responded by passing moratoriums on new data center development. Now it’s time for Georgia’s other coastal counties to follow suit. 

Why? 

To start, we don’t have the water to spare. A single large-scale data center can consume up to five million gallons per day—the equivalent of a small town. 

Coastal Georgians rely on the Floridan aquifer for most of our water. The Environmental Protection Division’s Statewide Water Management Plan places significant restrictions on water withdrawals in Chatham, Liberty, Bryan, and part of Effingham Counties. In Chatham and Effingham, withdrawals above 10.3 million gallons per day cause saltwater plumes to move toward the Floridan aquifer. As few as two data centers in these four counties could shorten the lifespan of our drinking water supply.

Meanwhile, our communities don’t have enough power to support a new, large data center, and ratepayers would be on the hook for the increased capacity. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute , a large data center can require up to 100 megawatts of continuous electricity—that’s enough to supply 75,000-100,000 homes. 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, data centers require capital investments in new utility lines, substations, and even new generation plants. In the southeast, many of the new plants being discussed to serve data centers are proposed to be fueled by natural gas, which can cost around $800/KW to construct—or easily be $80 million to serve a new, large data center. The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that ratepayers can bear the burden of up to 75% of the cost of these new investments. For coastal Georgia residents, any rate increases to supply power to data centers would not only be unfair, but they could also cripple the roughly 30% of coastal households who already struggle to pay their power bill.

Finally, data centers just don’t bring enough jobs to offset the cost of this resource-intensive industry. A large data center may employ 35 people. By comparison, the Savannah International Paper and Riceboro mills that closed last year supported more than 1,100 jobs. While those mills were also resource intensive, their operations benefited thousands of families. Data centers deplete available water and power, sapping those needed resources that would otherwise be available industries that could bring more jobs to the region. 

Coastal Georgians can see the risks playing out in real time—like in Brantley County, where concerns over data centers and drought intensified because of the devastating fires that swept the region in April—and they’re speaking up. In Port Wentworth, when the City Council overruled their Planning Commission to pass the coast’s first data center ordinance, it led to recall efforts against the newly elected officials who supported it. And when Glynn County opened the door for data center development in its new zoning ordinance, outrage sparked across the county. When asked on their ballots on May 19, more than 56% of Glynn County Republican and 98% of Democrat voters said no to data centers.

Kingsland, Camden County, and Garden City have the right idea. They know our coast’s water, power, and communities are not expendable, and they had the courage to take decisive action. Now it’s time for our other local governments to do the same. Coastal Georgia needs strong, forward-thinking laws that reflect the will of the people who live here and prevent wasteful data center development. Those policies can only come from strong local leaders who listen to their constituents and act responsibly—before it’s too late.