Montgomery County, MD — Today, at a packed Montgomery County town hall, residents and elected officials discussed ways to limit data center construction. Among the solutions discussed were proposed zoning text amendments and the creation of a data center task force that would issue a report within one year. Concerns amongst residents ranged from noise pollution, gas power plant expansion, and water usage.

There are multiple data centers proposed for Montgomery County, including an enormous proposal in Dickerson at the site of the former coal-powered plant now owned by Terra Energy. The facility would draw water from the Potomac River, which supplies 75 percent of drinking water to the region. Experts have warned that data center buildout could lead even non-water stressed areas to experience shortages; the Potomac River has been impacted by droughts in the past few years.

“Of course elected officials who want data centers will argue that there’s an appropriate place for this development, but the fact is that elected officials do not adequately understand the consequences,” said Food & Water Watch Maryland Organizer Jomar Lloyd. “What we do know is people are concerned over access to clean water — especially with the historic Potomac River sewage spill — and data centers are a direct threat to that. Montgomery County and Maryland at large needs to enact a moratorium on new proposals and developments until we can see if this development can coexist with the needs of Marylanders and not just the needs of Big Tech and those looking to profit off of this boom.”

“Hyperscale data centers are causing an affordability crisis that may be with us for decades, driving up electrical rates for Maryland residents throughout the state, not just the county where the data center is located. State and local governments should consider placing temporary moratoriums on new data center projects until baseline protections and guardrails are put in place,” said Dave Arndt, Co-Chair of Climate Justice Wing.  “Unfortunately, without those guardrails, these high electrical demands opens the door for gas fired power plants, which will exacerbate the affordability issues compounded with acceleration of climate and environmental issues.”

In October, Food & Water Watch became the first national group to call for a data center moratorium. Over 250+ organizations have since joined the call. Recent analysis from Food & Water Watch found that by 2028, AI-supporting data centers could consume:

• 720 billion gallons of water annually simply to cool the facilities — equal to more than 1 million Olympic-size swimming pools, or enough water to meet the indoor needs of 18.5 million American households.
• 300 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy annually — enough electricity to power over 28 million American households.