Concerns Mount In Counties Surrounding Bessemer About Giant Data Center

Residents of Bessemer are demanding transparency surrounding plans for a $14.9 billion hyperscale data center planned in the McCalla area by the secretive Delaware based Logistic Land Investments.

Residents of Tuscaloosa County and Northwestern Bibb counties, each just a few miles away, are paying attention to the impact the giant data facility could have on their county as well as Bessemer.

Officials continue to push the massive facility forward but have been less than forthcoming with critical information about the financial and environmental impacts of the hyperscale data center complex they call “Project Marvel.”

The Bessemer City Council voted recently in favor of allowing the data center project to generally develop on land zoned for light industrial use.

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According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, the 100-acre mega center will:

• Displace 18 family farms, each the size of a Walmart Supercenter,
• Be comprised of 18 buildings covering 4.5 million square feet,
• Require at least 2 million gallons of water per day. In some states, this has caused wells to run dry and lowered river water levels,
• Need 1,200 megawatts of electricity for 24-hour operations, which is roughly the same amount of power needed for a city of 760,000 residents. That would correlate to nine percent of Alabama Power’s current power-generating capacity.
• Activate a 30-year tax abatement meant to attract large data centers under the economic development law that could amount to a tax cut of more than $500 million.
• It could endanger 17 species.

A Data Center Coalition report states in 2010, nearly 80 percent of data center computing was done in smaller traditional computer centers, largely owned and operated by non-technology companies. Now, approximately 89 percent of data center computing takes place in giant cloud data centers. And that number is growing.

There are presently more than 5,000 data centers in the U.S. and Businesswire.com reports the facility planned for Bessemer is one of 152 upcoming hyperscale data centers currently in various stages of planning or construction across the nation.

Proponents point to jobs and income that will be created, but the Environmental Law Center, along with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper (BWR) and NAACP, oppose construction of the resource guzzler. They claim the facility will rely on fossil fuels that pollute the environment and accelerate climate change, and it will not just be the neighbors in Bessemer who will be impacted.

The battle against the Bessemer data center is part of an effort by BWR to fight the influx of data centers statewide. A letter by the NAACP stated, "Communities like Bessemer is home to mostly people of color... and have borne the brunt of toxic industries for far too long."

• Southern Exposure video “HYPERSCALED”.

Residents of nearby Bibb County could see higher power bills. Tuscaloosa County could also see irreversible impacts from the enormous water usage of the center, most of which will come from the Black Warrior River due to the center’s proximity to the tributary. The water needed for cooling will increase the water temperature and reduce the water levels. Combined with increased water runoff, the center could fundamentally alter the aquatic ecosystem.

The company asserts that a secret environmental review finds no ecological problems with the proposed site. Opponents want to know if the study finds no problems, then why not publish it?

An October 7th vote by the Bessemer City Council approved permitting data centers in "light Industrial" zones. The next hearing will include a decision on rezoning agricultural property to "light industrial"—public comment and consideration of Project Marvel is scheduled for Nov. 18 at 9 a.m.

Tuscaloosa Thread will continue to follow this ongoing issue.