SAN ANTONIO – Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop two San Antonio data centers that are building their own power plants next to neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
The News 4 I-Team was first to report on opposition to both Vantage data centers being constructed on the far west side.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims the data centers received permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that don’t protect the public from pollution.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Governor Abbott ordered TCEQ to stop issuing permits to data centers until a state audit is completed.<\/p>\n
As we reported in July, a company called Vantage is building two data centers, one on Omicron Drive and the other near Rogers Road.<\/p>\n
Both are close to residential neighborhoods and both are constructing natural gas power plants to provide power to the data centers. Dozens of diesel generators have also been installed as backup power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just concerned about the local environmental impact, in that, were they following regulations, is it going to be safe for my family, my daughter who was just born last year,” said David Thompson, who lives across from one of the plants.<\/p>\n
The three environmental groups that filed the federal lawsuit claim the projects were fast-tracked by TCEQ, which issued Vantage minor pollution source permits, the type typically given to dry cleaners and body shops.<\/p>\n
The Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club and Public Citizen, which filed the suit, argue Vantage and its partner VoltaGrid should have been issued major pollution source permits. which require stringent pollution controls and engagement with nearby residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are asking a court for preliminary relief, to order them to stop construction and operation of these facilities until they install the proper controls and until they obtain the proper permits,\u201d said Mary Greene, Director of Enforcement at the Environmental Integrity Project.<\/p>\n
The I-Team reached out to Vantage and VoltaGrid, but they have not responded. That state audit ordered by Governor Abbott is scheduled to be finished in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO – Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop two San Antonio data centers that are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-444674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}