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Environmental groups are suing Vantage and\u00a0VoltaGrid, saying the data center developers should have received major source permits before beginning construction on two data center campuses in San Antonio. This photo shows the data center at 14270 Omicron Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brendan Gibbons\/For the Environmental Integrity Project<\/p>\n
Environmental groups are suing Vantage and\u00a0VoltaGrid, saying the data center developers should have received major source permits before beginning construction on two data center campuses in San Antonio.\u00a0This photo shows the data center at 5207 Rogers Road.<\/p>\n
Brendan Gibbons\/For the Environmental Integrity Project<\/p>\n
Three environmental groups hit two West Side data center developers with a federal lawsuit two months after\u00a0threatening to sue the companies<\/a> if they did not correct their clean air law violations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Environmental Integrity Project<\/a>, Sierra Club<\/a> and Public Citizen<\/a> say\u00a0Denver-based Vantage<\/a> and Houston-based VoltaGrid<\/a> allegedly \u201cfailed to make any progress to address the violations\u201d to the Clean Air Act, spurring the environmental groups to file the lawsuit in federal court in San Antonio.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The groups say the West Side data center campuses will be powered by two gas-fired power plants that have the potential to emit thousands of tons of pollutants into an already smoggy part of San Antonio\u00a0\u2014 but the violation comes from the companies\u2019 failure to obtain proper permitting and to allow public input.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunities should not have to suffer excessive amounts of air pollution from data centers and power plants that fail to follow the Clean Air Act,\u201d said Mary Greene<\/a>, director of\u00a0enforcement at the Environmental Integrity Project<\/a>. \u201cIndustrial development at this scale requires public input and stringent permits that prioritize health and air quality over the unbridled race for an economic edge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Environmental groups threaten suit over San Antonio data centers\u2019 air pollution<\/a><\/p>\n San Antonio Express News Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The groups say Vantage and\u00a0VoltaGrid are building and partially operating the plants with permits for minor sources of pollution, while their generators are actually major pollution sources under the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> requires major source permits for any operation emitting 100 tons of air pollutants a year. Such permits require the best available pollution control technology, pollution monitoring and public participation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The environmental groups have estimated that the two power plants could emit 5,600 tons per year of nitrogen oxides and 323 tons per year of volatile organic compounds, which create smog, as well as cancer-causing gases, including 1,190 tons of carbon monoxide per year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the scope of the project and its potential pollutants, Vantage and\u00a0VoltaGrid obtained minor source permits, which are less effective for pollution control and do not give the public opportunity to weigh in and object. The environmental groups said this was \u201cexploiting Texas\u2019 fast-track approval process for minor sources.\u201d<\/p>\n SA INC.: Get the week\u2019s top local business stories in your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cTexans increasingly distrust data center developers, and for good reason,\u201d said Nandan Joshi<\/a>, attorney with Public Citizen\u2019s litigation group. \u201cTexans deserve to hear from developers about the pollution their facilities produce in local communities. The rush to build data centers should not come at the expense of public input and community health.\u201d<\/p>\n Vantage and VoltaGrid did not respond immediately to request for comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two gas-fired plants that will power the data center campuses collectively have a capacity of 405 megawatts, enough energy to power 101,250 homes or\u00a0nearly 20% of San Antonio\u2019s homes.<\/a> The campus also is equipped with 151 backup diesel generators that can provide 455 megawatts of generation capacity in case of an outage.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of this is off-grid energy generation, meaning that the entirety of the energy produced will go toward operating the data centers rather than the Texas grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n