Data Center Protest

Many of the churches of the Genesee Deanery are actively engaged in a protest, working for the benefit of the environment and for respect for the indigenous people of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, which has lands within (mainly) Genesee County.  The congregations of the Genesee Deanery are located in what is called the GLOW region: Genesee, (Livingston), Orleans, and Wyoming counties; two of these congregations are located in Genesee County. I also live in the GLOW region. In Genesee County, there is an industrial development site that was built – unbelievably – adjacent to the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation lands, and other protected wetlands. The site was supposed to be host to light manufacturing but is now proposed for a monster data center. We stand together in solidarity against the STREAM data center proposal for the STAMP site on Route 77 in the Town of Alabama in Genesee County.

            Here are some of our reasons:

  1. The economics don’t make sense. Dividing the requested tax incentives by the supposed number of jobs to be created = a cost to NY State tax payers of about $11M PER JOB. This would be ridiculous enough if it weren’t also for the fact that all around the country, data centers that start out with 100 or so employees have as their goal a shrinking work force – the trajectory, long-term, is for most of these facilities to operate with a skeleton crew. They are, after all, all about automation!!
  2. Big tech is using the “bait and switch” technique. Land is purchased for one reported purpose, and the  next thing anyone knows, there’s a proposal on the table for a monster data center. In just one example, a farmer sold land for a golf course – but when the dust settled, the development proposal was for a data center. It’s sneaky, and it’s being done all over the U.S. – we are but one of many examples.
  3. Energy use is projected at 500 megawatts, enough to power +410,000 homes. STREAM may claim that it will build its own power source, but the local utilities will still need to build up the infrastructure, and we who reside in Western New York will bear the cost over the long haul, because once rates go up, we all know they never come back down.
  4. And getting back to jobs: Goldman-Sachs has recently published a study that shows that AI could displace up to 11 M people (6 – 7 % of the work force) in the very near future – some of this is happening already, with numbers already in the thousands.
  5. The GDEDC signed a non-disclosure agreement with the entity proposing to build and run the data center. We do know that the company negotiating the deal – Apollo Global Management – has connections to Jeffrey Epstein and is itself the object of many lawsuits, several of which are related to bad labor practices.
  6. The size will be 900,000 square feet – that’s 15 football fields!
  7. The development will generate about 20,000 gallons of wastewater PER DAY that’s supposed to be sanitary, but in all actuality (as per other data center sites) will be filled with toxic chemicals. The proposal is to build a pipeline from the site to the Oakfield Wastewater Treatment plant. Until the pipeline is built, the wastewater will be trucked. After treatment it will be discharged into Oak Orchard Creek, which runs into Lake Ontario.
  8. Noise and light pollution will destroy the environment and damage or drive away many fragile and endangered species from the Refuge. The Sierra Club and others have produced reams of data showing the damage that will be caused to the protected lands and wildlife.
  9. Big Woods, adjacent to the Tonawanda Nation properties, will be rendered useless. Big Woods is home to native medicinal plants and Seneca sacred grounds and  usages. It will amount to cultural genocide.
  10. The GDEDC has been allowed to oversee the environmental impact studies – in spite of the fact that they stand to receive $145.9 million from this deal.
  11. Wetlands on the site are directly connected with state and federal wetlands in the area, including the Tonawanda Wildlife Management Area and Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. Waterways are connected to Oak Orchard Creek. In order to build, the site will require “dewatering.”
  12. Diesel fuel will be stored on site, with risk of spillage. A spill or even worse, a fire, with water effluent from fighting such a fire containing all sorts of noxious chemicals, would permanently and completely destroy the regional ecosystem.
  13. Proximity to data centers has been demonstrated to decrease milk production in cows and the noise pollution disrupts other animal behavior.

Should you be inclined to want to support this effort, I would suggest three things that you can do:

  1. Contact Governor Hochul’s office and voice your opposition to the STREAM proposal. Encourage her to support Senate Bill S9144 and Assembly Bill A10141, calling for a three-year moratorium on all data centers (and cryptocurrency mining) in NYS. The number is: 518-474-8390.
  2. Contact your local State Assembly Member/Senator and ask them to support this bill. (nyassembly.gov/mem) and (nysenate.gov/senators-committees).
  3. Pray for me and for the efforts of the various representatives of the Genesee Deanery congregations, and for everyone working against this; pray for the way-of-life of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, and for protection of regional wildlife and the environment.

Finally, watch the local news for data center proposal activities in Tonawanda in which you might be able to have a voice of protest. They’re insidious. Did you know, for example, that there are already four cryptocurrency mining operations in Niagara County? All just as toxic and unfriendly to the environment as data centers. God help us!!!

Thank you for letting me share,

God bless you all,  
Barbara Price