Twenty years ago, my Pittsburgh neighborhood, Brighton Heights, saw some of the worst air pollution in the country. Now, after the closures of coke works and coal power plants, it\u2019s a great place to raise a family and build community. We know that strong oversight of polluting facilities and meaningful protections for frontline communities lead to better health outcomes and improved quality of life. But a new industrial boom threatens to blunt this progress, despite recent protective actions at the state level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gas-powered hyperscale data centers have been proposed across Pennsylvania, representing increased risk to public health<\/a> due to the hazards posed by air pollution<\/a>, noise pollution<\/a> and light pollution<\/a>, as well as environmental impacts from high water usage<\/a> and increased fracking. Concerned by the sudden boom in proposals, community members across the state are quickly mobilizing to inform local decision making.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Pittsburgh is complicated. Your news shouldn\u2019t be shallow.<\/p>\n Get deeply reported local journalism that asks hard questions, explains powerful systems and stays with the story. Sign up for Public Source\u2019s newsletter today.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Shapiro recently responded to these concerns with an executive order<\/a> directing the state government to take steps aligned with his GRID principles<\/a> for data center development.\u00a0 While the governor deserves credit for his actions, this executive order is not a silver bullet. There is still plenty of work that potential host communities will need to do to protect themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n My organization, the Environmental Health Project (EHP), advocates for public health protections around gas-powered facilities, which includes most of these proposed data centers. While the recent executive order references a requirement for data centers to be powered by at least one-third clean energy in the coming decade, fossil gas will continue to power this industry. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels contains nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter and volatile organic compounds that can lead to health risks<\/a>, including respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, adverse birth outcomes, cancer and premature mortality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Aside from the substantial risks to public health from the air, water, noise and light pollution posed by gas-fired data centers<\/a>, there are also serious equity concerns. Many residents are worried that data centers will be built regardless of whether their community wants them. Pittsburgh-area community Springdale Borough<\/a>, for example, is now set to host a massive data center that may use as much energy as 140,000 homes<\/a>. Residents and council members expressed concern about pollution from 124 on-site diesel generators<\/a>. To help raise awareness about the potential pollution risks, EHP analyzed weather data and developed a map<\/a> showing where pollution from the facility would travel. But their borough council approved the permit, citing fear of legal action if they denied it. Residents felt like their concerns were ignored<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the governor has spoken out about the importance of \u201capproval from the local community,\u201d his recent executive order only requires local permit approvals, not positive public sentiment. Therefore, local efforts to enact strong data center ordinances are critical to protect communities before new data centers are proposed. I recently worked with a Springdale resident and other advocacy organizations at an event designed to train residents<\/a> about the growing risks posed by data centers and how they could push back.\u00a0 Our aim was to equip attendees with guidance for getting involved in local decision-making. This training consolidated contacts and resources<\/a> to help residents take action.\u00a0<\/p>\n The negative environmental, public health and economic risks posed by hyperscale, gas-fired data centers are significant, but increasingly so are the concerns and actions of many of the residents who will be impacted. Now is the time to consult the resources<\/a>, show up to local council meetings, and urge leaders to develop health protective ordinances that restrict data centers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Nathan Deron is the program manager of the nonpartisan nonprofit Environmental Health Project<\/a>, headquartered in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at nderon@environmentalhealthproject.org<\/a>. Since 2012, EHP has worked to defend public health in the face of oil and gas development.<\/p>\n \n\tMORE STORIES\n<\/p>\n Help us continue telling stories like this one.<\/p>\n We\u2019re Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source, an independent, nonprofit newsroom. That means we rely on donations from readers like you to help us report accurate, timely and impactful stories for the Pittsburgh region \u2014 available to everyone without paywalls. <\/p>\n Everyone deserves access to credible information to understand and help shape the region they call home, which is why we work hard everyday to deliver fact-checked stories on education, environment, health, local government and more.<\/p>\n We’ve seen our journalism prompt widespread change<\/a> in the Pittsburgh region \u2014 but none of it would be possible without the support of our community. If you found this story valuable, consider “paying it forward” by making a gift today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty years ago, my Pittsburgh neighborhood, Brighton Heights, saw some of the worst air pollution in the country.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5466,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-288085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-leadstorynoshow","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}