{"slug": "if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret", "title": "If AI Data Centers Are So Great, Why Are They Being Built in Secret?", "summary": "A national survey of nearly 4,000 residents across 49 states reveals that AI data centers are being constructed with little to no community input, sparking widespread concerns over secrecy and lack of transparency. Residents report back-door deals, NDAs, and decisions made before public meetings, with the most common complaint being that they feel silenced and ignored. The pattern raises the question of why facilities touted as community benefits are being built without meaningful public engagement.", "body_md": "# If Data Centers Are So Great, Why Are They Being Built in Secret?\n\n### We Have A Transparency Problem When It Comes To Data Center Construction\n\nI have spent my career listening to the people, especially those who were told to sit down and be quiet, who were told their backyard was safe, and that the water was safe to drink….\n\nI’ve shown up to community after community across the country for decades because the people who live in these towns invite me. I get hundreds of emails every single day, and what they say boils down to two little words: help me.\n\nSo when I started hearing from people about AI data centers appearing in their communities with little to no notice, I paid attention.\n\n**On April 27, I put out a simple ask: if you have concerns about an AI data center near you, tell me about it. I expected some response. What I got was a flood.**\n\nWe started with 30 reports on the map at [BrockovichDataCenter.com](https://brockovichdatacenter.com/). In a month, 3,862 residents submitted reports. The map now has 2,716 pins and represents 49 states. The single most common concern—more than noise, more than water usage, more than rising utility bills—is the one word that keeps appearing in submission after submission: **transparency**.\n\nResidents are using words like *silenced*, *ignored*, *secretive*, and *not seen and not heard*.\n\nThey write about back-door deals and NDAs. They describe showing up to planning meetings only to find out the decisions have already been made.\n\nThey’re watching their utility bills climb, finding sick animals they can’t explain, and worrying about the long-term impacts on their health and property values. These complaints are not small. They show a national pattern.\n\nWhen you hear about issues in one community here or there, it looks bad. But when you line these communities up side by side, you see the larger picture.\n\n**So let me ask the question directly: if AI data centers are such a tremendous benefit to communities, why are so many of them being built without meaningful community input?**\n\n#### The Scale of What’s Being Built\n\nTo understand what communities are dealing with, you first have to understand the scale of what is being constructed, and how fast it’s all happening.\n\nI’m not talking about a handful of buildings going up quietly in industrial zones. What we’re seeing is a wholesale remaking of the American landscape, town by town, county by county.\n\nIn the flatlands of northeast Louisiana, know for soybean fields and dense clusters of [rivercane](https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/rivercane.htm), Meta is building a [4-million-square-foot AI campus](https://datacenters.atmeta.com/richland-parish-data-center/) called Hyperion. When finished, it will consume [more electricity than the entire city of New Orleans](https://itep.org/states-are-opening-a-pandoras-box-of-data-centers/#:~:text=The%20costs%20to%20residents%20are,consumers%2C%20not%20just%20data%20centers) and cover a footprint the size of lower Manhattan.\n\n“Meta’s investment establishes the region as an anchor in Louisiana’s rapidly expanding tech sector, revitalizes one of our state’s beautiful rural areas and creates opportunities for Louisiana workers to fill high-paying jobs of the future,” said Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry [in a press statement](https://datacenters.atmeta.com/richland-parish-data-center). “I thank Meta for their commitment to our state.”\n\nDiane Cobb, a resident of Holly Ridge an unincorporated community in Richland Parish, said she found out about the data center the way everyone else in her community did—when they started digging.\n\n“Nobody told us anything,” she told\n\n. “They supposedly had a big meeting. The whole community was supposed to come. Nobody knew anything about it. Ever.”[New Orleans Public Radio]\n\nAt a meeting at Diane’s house in February, local community members brought their questions.\n\nWhy does their water sometimes turns brown?\n\nWhy has their electricity has been shutting off without any notice, sometimes for days at a time?\n\nWhy does everyone seem to have gotten sicker since Meta showed up?\n\nIn West Memphis, Arkansas, Alphabet’s Google has started construction on what state officials are calling the[ largest private capital investment in state history,](https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/google-10-billion-data-center-west-memphis/522-221c7a4f-f7bc-4a6c-a5c5-36c8e007b299) a multibillion dollar campus on 1,100 acres of scrubland.\n\nIn South Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk converted a vacant Electrolux factory into his Colossus supercomputer in just [122 days](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/spectrum-x-ethernet-networking-xai-colossus). He is now building a second, larger version [targeting a million GPUs](https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-xai-plans-massive-expansion-ai-supercomputer-memphis-2024-12-04/), has acquired [a third building to expand further](https://www.reuters.com/business/musks-xai-buys-third-building-expand-ai-compute-power-2025-12-30/), and purchased a [former Duke Energy power plant](https://dailymemphian.com/subscriber/section/metro/article/52195/xai-buys-former-power-plant-in-southaven-mississippi) to keep it all running.\n\nMicrosoft has invested more than [$7 billion in its data centers ](https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2025/09/18/racine-county--data-center--addition--4-billion--microsoft)in Racine County, Wisconsin.\n\n“In the heart of the American Midwest, a modern marvel is rising,” Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said [in a statement](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WIGOV/bulletins/3f327b5). “We’re in the final phases of building the world’s most powerful AI datacenter in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin—part of a region forged by generations of hard work and ingenuity.”\n\nMeanwhile, environmental groups are pursuing [legal action and policy advocacy](https://midwestadvocates.org/issues/data-centers/).\n\n“Transparency cannot depend on a company’s goodwill or public relations strategy, according to [a 2026 statement released by the org](https://midwestadvocates.org/data-center-transparency-is-a-right-not-a-public-relations-strategy). “Rather, transparency is foundational to democratic decision-making and community trust, especially for projects with environmental impacts as significant as large-scale data centers. These facilities will place enormous demands on our water supplies, electricity grids, and local infrastructure. Communities have a right to full, timely, and meaningful information before decisions are made—not after deals are signed behind closed doors.”\n\nIn rural Indiana near the banks of Lake Michigan, Amazon has transformed 1,200 acres of farmland into an $11 billion facility called [Project Rainier.](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/29/amazon-opens-11-billion-ai-data-center-project-rainier-in-indiana.html)\n\nHundreds of data centers are already operating in Texas with [hundreds more on the way](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/is-texas-ready-for-the-fast-approaching-data-center-boom). Concerns about [water consumption](https://www.tpr.org/environment/2026-05-09/report-texas-data-centers-may-increase-pressure-on-the-states-strained-water-supplies) at these facilities is rising as the state stares down a major water shortage due to prolonged drought, population growth and industrial demand that outpace existing supplies. [Texas will need at least $174 billion](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/16/texas-water-supply-crisis-corpus-christi-development-board/) in the next 50 years to avoid a major water crisis, according to a new state analysis.\n\nI could go on, and on, and on. Read more [here](https://sustainabilitydialogue.uchicago.edu/news/data-centers-pollution-and-the-communities-left-behind/).\n\nU.S. data centers also consumed more than 4 percent of total U.S. electricity in 2023, [according to the MIT Energy Initiative](https://energy.mit.edu/strategic-priorities/data-center-power-demand). That number could more than double to 9 percent by 2030, the research group projects. A single hyperscale data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes.\n\n#### Meet the Messengers\n\nAs residents across the country have begun pushing back, they’ve started encountering a well-funded counter-effort, and it’s worth knowing who is behind it.\n\n[NetChoice](https://netchoice.org/) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association whose members include some of the biggest names in the tech sector: Amazon, Google, Meta, and others. It’s funded primarily through membership dues and sponsorships paid by those same corporations.\n\nThe association’s stated mission is to promote free enterprise and free expression online. NetChoice lobbies against regulations its corporate members find inconvenient, litigates against state laws those members oppose, and runs public campaigns designed to shape how communities and lawmakers think about technology policy.\n\nOne of those campaigns is called “Data Centers Help Local Communities.” Maybe you’ve seen an ad on YouTube? It promotes the economic benefits of data centers and encourages states to offer tax exemptions to attract them.\n\nThe messaging emphasizes job creation, tax revenue, and broadband expansion. It does not emphasize community consent, environmental impact, or the right of residents to know what is being built next door before the permits are signed.\n\nThis effort is not put out by an independent research organization or a neutral policy group. It’s an industry lobby funded by the very companies building these facilities, running ads and campaigns designed to smooth the path for their members’ projects.\n\nWhen you see messaging about how data centers are good for your town, it’s worth asking: who paid for that message, and what are they selling?\n\nThe economic arguments NetChoice makes are not fabricated. Data centers do create some jobs. They can generate tax revenue. In places like Loudoun County, Virginia, that [revenue has been genuinely significant](https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-virginia-taxes-data-centers-new-restrictions-budget-supervisors-board-kershner-data-center-revenue-new-positions-estimated-millions-operating-money-politics). But an industry lobby will always lead with the benefits and bury the costs.\n\nIt will not tell you about the strain on your power grid, the draw on your water supply, the noise that doesn’t stop, or the back-door deals your local officials may have already signed before you heard a word about it.\n\n#### Communities Are Pushing Back —> & Winning\n\nThe good news is that when communities organize and show up, conditions can change.\n\nIn Monroe Township, New Jersey, residents began packing planning board meetings after discovering a proposed 1 million-square-foot data center and 522,000-square-foot warehouse on 172 acres of vacant farmland.\n\nPeople raised concerns about electricity consumption, water usage, and noise. Officials heard them.\n\nBy April, [Monroe Township passed ordinances](https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/monroe-gloucester-new-jersey-data-center-ban-law/) banning data centers entirely. When developer Hexa Builders’ application was subsequently denied as incomplete, the ban took full effect. You can read the Mayor’s full statement about it [here](https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1404077778431104&set=a.225825626256331).\n\nMonroe Township is not alone. Pemberton Township in Burlington County passed what advocates say was New Jersey’s first municipal data center ban in February.\n\nAdvocates are [now pushing for a state moratorium](https://jerseyvindicator.org/2026/05/14/new-jersey-environmental-groups-push-for-statewide-moratorium-on-data-centers) on new data centers.\n\nKassi Solberg a mom in rural Montana [made national headlines](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/us/data-centers-kassi-solberg.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lVA.KHrs.7krfc-GT4jbC&smid=url-share) taking on a proposed 5,000-acre AI data center near her property. At a recent town hall meeting, she asked if anyone on the town council had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the developer that would keep them silent about the project.\n\nThe mayor replied that the council wasn’t obliged to answer the public’s questions at the town meetings, according to what the town’s lawyer had told him.\n\n“I think they count on us being dumb country people and us not pushing back,” she told *The New York Times*. “But by the time you figure out what these companies are planning to do, they’ve got the data centers built already.”\n\nIn Utah, Kevin O’Leary’s massive proposed facility is facing [mounting community opposition](https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/09/tech/ai-data-center-utah-kevin-oleary-opposition).\n\nThe pattern is consistent. When communities are informed and organized, they can change the conversation. They can take action.\n\n#### What Transparency Looks Like\n\nI want to be clear. I’m not making a blanket argument against data centers or against the technology they support. Some communities have welcomed these facilities after genuine public engagement, honest disclosure of impacts, and real negotiation of community benefits. When that happens, that’s democracy working the way it should.\n\nWhat is not acceptable is the pattern our map documents: projects announced after permits are already secured, developers who don’t return calls, local officials who signed NDAs before their neighbors knew a project was being considered.\n\nA company can be planning something the size of lower Manhattan in your county, drawing more electricity than a major American city, backed by hundreds of billions in borrowed money, and the people who live there may have no idea it’s coming until the trucks arrive.\n\nTransparency means notifying residents before decisions are made, not after. It means public hearings with real, complete information about energy consumption, water use, noise levels, and effects on local infrastructure. It means elected officials who answer to their constituents first, not to the corporations seeking tax breaks and zoning variances.\n\nWhen a company the size of Meta or Amazon wants to put a billion-dollar facility in a town of less than 20,000 people, give the people who live there a seat at the table. It’s that simple.\n\n#### What You Can Do\n\nThe map at [BrockovichDataCenter.com](https://brockovichdatacenter.com/) exists because of you. Every pin represents a real person who refused to be silent. A new feature where you can upload photos and videos is coming soon, which means the documentation will only get stronger. Get your phones out and start showing us what your water looks like, what your neighborhood sounds like, or any other visual changes in your neighborhood.\n\nIf there is a data center issue in your community, report it.\n\nAttend your local planning board meetings. Ask your elected officials what they knew and when they knew it. Ask whether any NDAs were signed. Ask for the full environmental and energy impact assessments, and if they don’t exist, ask why not.\n\nThe race to build AI infrastructure is unfolding town by town across this country. In some places, it is welcomed. In others, it is being forced through the back door.\n\nThe difference, in almost every case, comes down to whether the community was informed, whether they organized, and whether they showed up.\n\nTo all of you who have already submitted, thank you! Keep it coming.\n\nNote: We have about 4,000 data centers operating in the U.S., many built before the AI boom. The map isn't intended to show every data center. It's focused on locations where community members are actively voicing concerns.\n\n*Report your AI data center concerns and view the full map at brockovichdatacenter.com.*\n\nWant to learn more? Need more support?\n\n#### 🚨Resource Alert 🚨\n\n[Halt the Harm ](https://halttheharm.net/about/)has a [Help Desk](https://datacenters.halttheharm.net/contact/) where individuals can request help and they will respond within 48 hours. They can help in a variety of ways: information sharing, strategy development, connecting community members to experts, financial assistance, and often times just being someone to listen and be thought partner.\n\n#### Join the Free Webinar:\n\n200 Feet Away: One Family’s Unexpected Fight Against a Data Center\n\nJoin Halt The Harm for a conversation with two community advocates from [Wilmington Residents for Responsible Development](https://www.facebook.com/groups/wilmingtonresidentsforresponsibledevelopment), who never expected to become experts in zoning fights, public accountability, and data center development, but whose experiences have lessons for anyone facing a similar fight.\n\n**When: Thursday, May 28 at 6pm ETRSVP: https://luma.com/hhn-2aek**", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret", "canonical_source": "https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/if-data-centers-are-so-great-why", "published_at": "2026-06-03 16:57:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-03 17:43:15.871618+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["BrockovichDataCenter.com"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-ai-data-centers-are-so-great-why-are-they-being-built-in-secret.jsonld"}}