Residents raised concerns that the ordinance banning data centers contains loopholes and requested that the Monroe Township Council consider taking further action to address the issue during its June 24 meeting.
During the public hearing portion of the meeting, Linda Sullivan joined fellow Monroe Township residents in expressing concerns about the environmental impact, energy use, and noise associated with data centers.
In addition, Sullivan addressed the ongoing problem of providing the public with an effective platform for staying informed about important developments in the township.
Sullivan alleged that Hexa Developers carried out a “bait and switch” by proposing a data center under the guise of a warehouse.
“The public is ill-informed and too late,” Sullivan said. “We are not talking about normal data centers here. We are talking about hyperscale data centers.”
“These are not clean, quiet, or low-impact facilities,” she continued. “In reality, they function more like industrial power and cooling plants, with consequences that ripple far beyond municipal boundaries.”
Sullivan stated that the municipality is not equipped to evaluate or regulate the regional environmental impact of a hyperscale data center. She went on to say that, in response to an open records request regarding water usage at the Data One facility in Vineland, it was reported that the facility uses 2.2 million gallons of water per day.
“They’re self-reporting,” she explained. “I see no mention of how much drinkable water from our Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer is allowable for any residential or commercial entity.”
She added, “Then subtract the 2 million gallons of water a day from that number and add that to the ordinance, reminding you that our area has been under severe drought conditions with water restrictions over the last several years. The Vineland Data One facility is only one-third built, and that’s what it’s already reporting.”
Like many other residents at the meeting, Sullivan proposed a moratorium as a solution.
“I’m asking again that Monroe Township adopt an 18-month moratorium on the construction of data centers, like the one recently introduced in Sayreville, Middlesex County, to protect our residents and our environment,” she said.
In response to requests for a statewide moratorium, Mayor Greg Wolfe informed residents that, as president of the Gloucester County Mayors Association, he has participated in discussions about data centers during association meetings.
“Some municipalities actually leaned on us that are now banning them in Gloucester County to see how we were doing it,” he said. “Because we were kind of one of the first, besides Vineland.”
Mayor Wolfe noted that he and members of the Gloucester County Mayors Association have communicated with state legislators about a moratorium.
“There’s at least five pieces of legislation regarding data centers. I don’t believe there’s a moratorium proposal at this point,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I’m being told that they are not going to go the moratorium route.”
