Adams County, OH — On Monday, Sprigg Township passed a 12-month data center moratorium following public pushback. Recent regulatory filings in Adams County discovered that a data center proposal for the county would be among the state’s largest data centers, consuming 31 times as much energy as Adams County. 

With the move, Sprigg Township joins a growing number of communities standing up against data center development in Ohio and across the country. 

In response to the vote, Food & Water Watch Senior Researcher Ben Murray issued the following statement: 

“I’ve been here on the ground as a concerned community member — my family, my friends, and residents have brought their concerns to the elected officials and are trying to voice our concerns to local elected officials. Data centers are being proposed at lightning speed without much time for the community and decision makers to catch up. This moratorium is hopefully a chance to pump the brakes and determine what’s in the township’s best interest, and I hope more municipalities in Ohio see our momentum here in Sprigg and follow suit.”

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.