Hermantown rejects call for Environmental Assessment Worksheet on Data Center project

The City of Hermantown has denied the petition request for an Environmental Assessment Worksheet to be conducted on the proposed Data Center.

The City of Hermantown has denied a petition requesting an Environmental Assessment Worksheet for the proposed Data Center. The petition, filed by the group Stop the Hermantown Data Center, was received by the Environmental Quality Board on October 17 and forwarded to the city on October 21.

Petition Details

Petitioners argued that the previous Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) for the site was insufficient.

“We demand a full environmental impact statement, renewed public hearings, and a commitment to honesty and openness moving forward. Until these conditions are met, we urge the City of Hermantown to suspend all further work on this data center project,” stated a portion of the petition.

An Environmental Assessment Worksheet is used to determine if a project may have significant environmental effects and whether a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement is needed. An AUAR is a hybrid of these two processes.

Hermantown Denies Request

On Wednesday, the City of Hermantown denied the petition, stating a comprehensive environmental review had already been completed for the area described and that the AUAR had been adopted by the city council 15 days before the petition was received.

A link to a letter from City Administrator John Mulder was added to the project page of the city’s website. The letter said, in part, the following:

“The adopted AUAR analyzed a ‘worst-case scenario’ development scope of up to 1.8 million square feet of light industrial use. This analysis covered cumulative potential effects for traffic, water resources, and infrastructure typical of industrial development. The AUAR process is designed to evaluate the impacts of a scenario rather than a specific building permit application. Any future specific project – whether a data center or other industrial facility – must comply with the strict conditions of the adopted Mitigation Plan. If a specific project proposal exceeds the development assumptions of impacts studied in the adopted AUAR, the City will utilize the update procedures under Minn. R. 4410.3610, Subpart 7, rather than the EAW petition process.”

Stop the Hermantown Data Center Response

Stop the Hermantown Data Center (SHDC) responded to the City’s decision on Friday. The press release said, in part, the following:

“Members of the Stop The Hermantown Data Center (SHDC) are disappointed, but not surprised, that the City of Hermantown has decided to deny the group’s Environmental Quality Board (EQB) Petition and determined that the AUAR already conducted is an adequate environmental assessment for the now-known hyper-scale data center proposed for development in the center of rural, homestead properties in the Adolph area.”

SHDC Volunteer John Gustafson lives in Solway Township and became worried about the project once it was confirmed to be a data center.

“I’ve been aware of it for quite a while ever since Minnesota Power bought up property in Solway for their new substation. And so we saw that they started buying up properties. We started asking questions,” recalled Gustafson. “There was a lot of questions and gossip about what this will entail. And kind of put two and two together and said I think a data center is going to be coming this way. It wasn’t confirmed until this fall when the database data communications were released and was confirmed.”

Gustafson and other SHDC members believe the city took “deliberate steps to obscure that information” and frame the project as light industrial. The group has been meeting regularly since the project was revealed, becoming organized and making signs and buttons to share their opposition to the project.

“We knew that this is a process that the data center developers and local communities follow is to kind of obscure the process, try to put everything in place before it’s publicly announced that it is a data center, and by that time, and for many communities across this country. It’s too late for them to do anything about it,” said Gustafson. “We were fortunate enough to get them to stop and consider our petition and give us a little more time to bring other resources to bear.”

What’s Next?

There is a pending lawsuit from SHDC and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), filed against the City on November 5. Because of the lawsuit, the city is unable to comment on its decision to deny the petition request.

SHDC wants the City to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement to “better examine this massive project” and asks for “broader citizen input in the process for deciding the merits of this data center.” The group is opposed to the use of NDAs and is concerned about the overall impact the data center will have on the environment, taxes, and utility rates.

WDIO will continue to provide the latest updates on this issue as they become available.

For Related Stories: Hermantown Hermantown Data Center

Hermantown rejects call for Environmental Assessment Worksheet on Data Center project

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