The response to the potential development of Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Projects  into Pennsylvania in particular Northeastern Pennsylvania is getting the same response as natural gas development and warehouse development in our region.  I would just ask the community to take a minute and think about a  strategy to best protect the community and the environment, which should include the economic viability of the region.  To be honest, do we need more single-family housing, strip malls, specialty shops, and some of our towns are simply old mining towns with no economic support, how about some manufacturing, high tech jobs, or a new vision for the community while still protecting the environment, but rebuilding these communities in an eco- and environmentally minded  way ?   

For some that really know me, I grew up in Wilkes-Barre, PA and I would be the first to agree that much of the town should be bulldozed, redesigned, and rebuilt with a lot more green space and a lot less unusable housing and commercial buildings built on a floodplain.  It is time to take this opportunity to start rebuilding communities and neighborhoods and providing for the long-term needs of our fellow citizens and their children.

As a youth, I loved the following games:  Risk, Stratego, Monopoly, Checkers, Clue, Uno, and the card game a form of Smear.  I did not read very well because of my dyslexia, but these types of games I loved.   So, I recommend using strategy as an approach rather than fear, partial truth, using misguided talking points,  and developing call to actions that lack substance.

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Step 1:  Learn

Learn and review from past or previous projects and learn from their mistakes.  Not all developers and consultants are equal.  Some are great and have done and completed wonderful projects that have helped a community, others suck.   For projects it is important to know and learn the following:

What did the company or community forget to consider or get wrong ?

What assumptions proved to be wrong or if the facility failed, why?

What is the company or developers actually proposing?

What is the nature of the proposed water usage?  and How Much is a consumptive use? and how much of this water usage is related to Energy Generation and How Much related to Heat Management and Domestic Usage ?

What water will be used?  Using treated wastewater,  stormwater runoff, or flood stage water sounds good, but if we do not put this water back in the streams, the streams may not have flow and go dry.

What permits are needed and what agencies will be the one issuing the permits?

What is lacking in your local agency ordinances as it relates to these projects?

What is the planning and permitting process in your community?  (The Planning process for these large projects typically includes multiple layers of environmental, historic, community impacts that that must be considered and each are subject to evaluation).

What other projects, such as energy projects, linear projects (roads, electric lines, pipelines) will be required to permit the construction of the proposed facility?

NOT all AI systems are the same, some use water, recirculated water or chemical fluids, or air to cool the systems?  What is being proposed?  Get the details?

Not all AI projects are the same, they are unique projects and they have different potential impacts compared to an energy project, warehouse proposal, a linear road project, or some other commercial / industrial development.

Step 1A: What is Consumptive Use?

“Consumptive use refers to the portion of water that is withdrawn from a source and not returned to it, typically because it is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the available supply.  This term is commonly used in water resource management, agriculture, and environmental science to distinguish it from non-consumptive uses, where water is returned to the source. “   Therefore, unlike other water uses where the water is returned to the local watershed, such as when a development uses groundwater for drinking water and then returns the water back into to the watershed via the use of septic systems,  the consumptive use is the portion of the water that is lost to evaporation, transpiration, water content in bulk materials, or transported out of the watershed.”

Step 1B:  What is a River Basin Commission?

In our region, consumptive use is very tightly controlled by the River Basin Commissions, i.e., Delaware and Susquehanna, it is not simply controlled by the local township, county, or even the State Department of Environmental Resources.   The River Basin Commissions are  “ A river basin commission is a government agency formed to manage and protect water resources within a specific river basin, involving multiple states or regions. These commissions focus on issues like water quality, flood control, and cooperative planning among the jurisdictions within the basin “ (Source: Duck Duck Go AI)  

River Basin Commissions allocate water usage in a basin. This water usage includes non-consumptive water usage and consumptive water usage and the projects are charged a fee for this water.   Did you know that golf courses are issued a consumptive use permit and that this includes the evapotranspiration of the water out of storage ponds?   

Regarding a common concern about data centers water usage is drying up private wells, the River Basin Commission permitting and allocation process is specially designed and operated in a manner to prevent this from happening and to be honest the River Basin Commission is really the only agency in the state that can protect water resources of private well owners, community water systems, and other water users including recreational water uses.  Therefore, it is critical to learn about what these organizations are doing and are they being proactive.  There meetings are open to the public.

It would be wise to learn about their permitting, approval, and allocation process for these Commissions.   For example, a water supplier that has approval for the withdrawal of 1 million gallons of water for drinking water by a river basin commission does not mean the supplier has approval for the consumptive use of this same water.  In the Poconos Region, the Delaware River Basin Commission and to some extent the Susquehanna River Basin Commission regulate and control consumptive water usage.

Step 2:  Where does your township stand ?  Are they prepared?

Update land-use, zoning, and subdivision ordinances.  It also may be advisable to update and/or develop additional ordinances related to water reuse, siting and constructing on-site water wells, stormwater management, cryptocurrency mining, energy storage facilities, fire protection, and other directly and indirectly related activities associated with artificial intelligence, noise and lighting ordinances, data centers, and energy storage.  Local News Articles:  Jessup, Jackson Township (Search Phase Data Storage Centers and CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING FACILITY),  Chestnuthill Township, Smithfield Township, and Monroe County Model Ordinance.

When evaluating these uses, it is critical to look and identify existing problems in the community, such as: flooding, energy capacity and cost,  pre-existing water resource issues related to drinking water, recreational waters,  wastewater, stormwater management issues, lighting, noise, buffers, set-backs, zoning districts, etc.

Look to the possibility of co-locating projects that create value added synergy, such as development that can use waste heat, manufacturing that may have an industrial wastewater management issue, landfills that may be producing leachate and/or methane,   or developing facilities that can be used for training, senior housing, existing or under-utilized business parks, older communities that require significant infrastructure upgrades or other community needs.

Try to evaluate the proposed development not simply has a negative, but as a possible tool to solve an existing economic, environmental, or other socio-economic issue in the community and you may want to consider the development of a multiple local agency approach to data centers.    It may be wise for the various communities to create consistent ordinances on this topic and perhaps consider forming some formal joint agency, similar to regional wastewater authorities.

Step 3:  Is there a role for Renewable Energy?

From a renewable energy perspective, I think it is more likely that geothermal energy systems may be used to create some significant synergies with AI applications.   Wind and solar energy systems may generate intermittent energy resources, but unless this energy can be used and consumed the energy requires storage or it will die on the man-made “vine”.   Because of the lack of energy distribution and production, it is also likely that some datacenters may create their own power stations and the likely fuel source will be natural gas.  This may require the installation of natural gas delivery pipelines and this may be an opportunity to replace aging infrastructure in a community, harden distribution systems,  provide the community a more stable fuel source, or be used to create other synergies for local business that require energy resources, can utilize waste heat, or meet a future energy demand in an emergency. 
  

Step 4:  Location, Location, Location and Can We Attempt to Address Legacy Sites – What is the Role of the State?

It may also be advisable to locate sites in areas that could benefit from the redevelopment of brownfields,  old mining regions, legacy sites, and abandon/ historic manufacturing/ retail sites.  This also may be a great opportunity to redesign some of our urban landscapes by eliminating housing located in environmental sensitive areas and housing that is very substandard and inefficient with an AI enhanced commercial business park with more efficient mixed use urban housing.  In addition, it is likely AI projects could help the region better manage existing environmental problems related to combined sewer overflows,  ineffective wastewater treatment, industrial waste discharges, destruction of “forever chemicals”,  and acid mine drainage management.  Therefore, it may be advisable to locate AI sites closer to existing urban corridors rather than rural areas.

Closing Comments

My  closing thoughts:  By the way, I believe almost everything is war, but war may and can led to positive change.  

From an environmental and management approach, we think a holistic approach is needed:

a.      Look at conducting pre-development and post-development energy and water mass balances for the study area and look at the current weakness in the energy distribution network. This may be a great opportunity to harden the grid.

b.      Remember:  That some AI systems are water consumers not just users, look at the integration of recycling systems and the environmental concerns and how to implement multistage containment systems to prevent environmental release.

c.       Conduct baseline testing on local groundwater and surface water quality and physical condition and aquifer yields, and conduct baseline testing on private wells and springs that may surround the proposed project site.   It is important to remember that Pennsylvania has NO minimum construction standards for private wells and many private wells, probably at least 50%, are very vulnerable to adverse influence, contamination, or impact.   This is a great opportunity to identify those vulnerable wells and systems and correct/ remediate.  

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d.      If a source may have an approved water withdrawal, does the source have a consumptive use permit from the local or regional river basin commission and how might the proposed AI-facility manage and deal with periods of drought where consumption use permits may have limitations.  Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate projects based on both normal-year and drought-year conditions.

e.      Impact assessments should look at energy and waste heat management, which may require the integration of green building design to capture, re-use, and recharge stormwater runoff and green building design approaches that limit and reduce “heat island effects”, such as green roofing systems and integrating the system into the local landscape.

f.        Remember, it may be great that a building can recycle and reuse degraded water, such as treated wastewater, runoff, and industrial water, but it is also important to maintain normal-year and drought-year recharge rates in the watershed and stream baseflow conditions.  This may also be an excellent opportunity to help fund and implement the redesign of urban areas, promote education and training in the trades/construction/ water and wastewater professionals, and additional leverage to support the traditional education efforts in science, engineering, chemistry, physics, business management, and health sciences.

g.      Depending on the water and heat management system, it is likely that the facility will need to utilize chemicals that may create a potential environmental exposure via an accidental release to the environment.  Therefore, these facilities need to put in place a management and monitoring system to track, store, and ensure the safe long-term disposal of these potential environmental contaminants.

h.      Again, please do not forget upgrading land-use, zoning, and subdivision ordinances and we do not mean just related to AI Data Centers, but the associated secondary development that will likely follow, such as: additional housing, service needs, transportation, and the need for additional energy generation and infrastructure projects.

In closing, we need to ask the questions why are AI Data Centers Needed and why should they be built here.   The answer is the same as why we needed warehouses -  we have stuff made in other countries and we no longer make stuff here and we continue to buy this stuff rather than figuring out how to make it ourselves or we do not think it is worth our time and effort to make it ourselves.  Finally,  many of us are simple consumers and not creators.   FOR AI, there is another factor – we have become addicted to data, social media, and immediate gratification related to information.   How many homes have a library?  How many kids love or can read books, at grade level ?   

What is the driver for the need for more AI Data Centers ?

“The data boom is primarily driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and the increasing demand for data processing capabilities, leading to significant investments in data centers. This shift reflects a changing consumer culture that increasingly relies on digital services, while the defense sector is also adapting by integrating advanced technologies and data analytics to enhance operational efficiency and security” (Duck Duck Go AI)

“The data boom is both a product of and a contributor to evolving consumer culture, where digital interactions have reshaped behaviors, expectations, and societal norms. Consumers now generate vast amounts of data through everyday activities, which in turn influences how products and services are delivered. Over the past decades, e-commerce, social media, and streaming have transformed consumer habits, emphasizing convenience, personalization, and instant access. For instance, unlimited information availability empowers consumers to make informed decisions quickly, but it also fosters impatience and reduced loyalty to brands. Generational differences amplify this: Baby Boomers may prefer traditional shopping, while Gen Z demands seamless digital experiences, driving data collection on preferences and behaviors…… The data boom intersects with defense sectors by enhancing military capabilities through advanced data technologies, while defense investments simultaneously fuel the boom. Rising global tensions and tech integration have made data a strategic asset.” (Grok)

If you like long detailed responses – use Grok (X AI).   Short answers- Duck Duck Go AI

Article 1: Artificial Intelligence: Data Centers Water Consumption – Thoughts for the Poconos and Northeastern Pennsylvania

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