(The Center Square) – Local officials in Central Illinois have been deterred from continuing talks to develop a data center after community pushback and concern over the potential a new project could compromise the source of drinking water for over one million residents.
Community members in Mahomet pushed their public officials to end discussion with developer Clean Cloud Energy just a week after discussions began for a potential data center being built in their area, which they say could threaten the Mahomet aquifer system that supplies drinking water to roughly one million residents in the region.
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, told The Center Square the debacle could’ve been avoided if the Illinois General Assembly’s Democratic supermajority took action over the multiple months of hearings and different bills proposed over regulations of data centers in the spring.
“Everybody came unglued because the state of Illinois has no rules around data centers and despite two days of hearings in the Senate Executive Committee in early April, the Democrat General Assembly adjourned without putting one rule, not one, on data center construction in the state,” Rose said.
The lawmaker noted Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has said he’s in favor of allowing local control and decisionmaking on if data centers can be built, previously reversed course on his support for local control over decisionmaking relating to wind turbine construction after an election.
He exasperatedly questioned Pritzker’s plans.
“He lied to the Farm Bureau and said, ‘I support local control and I’ll never take away local control,’ and then after the election was over, he goes in and takes away local siding authority for windmills and he takes away local siding authority for solar in another bill,” Rose said. “It’s always after the election’s over. So what are they planning, folks?”
But Pritzker has pushed the legislature to pass the POWER Act, which would put in place some statewide regulations that many lawmakers support on both sides.
That law would include the requirement for new projects to build renewable energy projects and use closed-loop water cooling, if they plan to use water at all – avoiding some of the concern expressed by Mahomet residents that a data center would soak up much of their water supply with evaporative cooling of the often multi-million square foot-spanning computer systems.
But lawmakers aren’t all on the same page about specific regulations.
Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, has pushed back against the need for some state regulations on the projects, citing a Meta data center built in recent years on the border of his district in DeKalb.
“They use less water cooling their computers than a dorm building does on [Northern Illinois University’s] campus when students are in session. The water usage is significantly overblown,” Keicher said.
Keicher argued the development has also benefitted DeKalb residents within his district by reducing property taxes, while providing more local funding for schools, by taxing the Meta center and other nearby industrial projects.
State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, introduced a bill Friday that would put regulatory control in the hands of county officials.
Davidsmeyer’s bill specifically allows counties to pass ordinances establishing standards for things such as the height, size, location, water usage and more, while also requiring a public hearing at least 30 days before a final vote on regulations.
The Illinois General Assembly, which previously held hearings to inform lawmakers on the impacts of data centers, will return to Springfield after the general election under pressure to take legislative action on the polarizing projects during the fall veto session from Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3.
