Harrisburg, PA — Tonight, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission will hold a public hearing regarding Constellation Energy’s request to extract up to 73.2 million gallons of water daily from the Susquehanna River. The water requested would be used for the Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly known as Three Mile Island — the site of the worst commercial nuclear incident in United States history — which is being repowered to feed new proposed Microsoft data centers.

The request comes as multiple counties in the Susquehanna Valley experience abnormal, moderate, and severe drought conditions. Communities across Pennsylvania have been pushing back on data center development due to concerns over water use, electricity price increases, and quality of life impacts. Polling from December shows that 70 and 71% of Pennsylvanians, respectively, are concerned about the amount of data water and electricity data centers use.

In response to the hearing, Food & Water Watch Northern Region Director Alex Beauchamp issued the following statement:

“Repowering a dangerous, resource-intensive nuclear plant in the middle of a drought all to feed unwanted AI data centers is a recipe for disaster. Constellation and Microsoft’s plan to take tens of millions of gallons of water out of the water cycle is a clear example of corporations prioritizing profits over people and our environment.

“What’s more, building out nuclear energy means creating untold amounts of dangerous radioactive waste that could be disastrous, as we saw with the Three Mile Island meltdown. Extractive industries have exploited Pennsylvanians for generations and the data center boom is breathing new life into economically unviable and environmentally destructive practices. The River Basin Commission must reject this request.”

On April 14, the Susquehanna River experienced low flow conditions that triggered stop orders for fracking-related water withdrawals across three Pennsylvania counties.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission is accepting written comments until May 4.

Last month, Food & Water Watch released a first-of-its-kind report detailing the harms of the AI and data center boom infiltrating communities around the country. 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 — including 17 from Pennsylvania.