Fears over illness, noise and water contamination are fueling two Springfield women’s push to block mega‑data centers in Ohio.
When Nicole Bethel and Melissa Rexroth started seeing data centers pop up, they began to grow concerned. They separately linked up with the Conserve Ohio movement — the participants of which are gathering signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban data centers that consume more than 25 megawatts of energy monthly — then met each other and joined forces.
Now, the two are gathering local signatures and working to educate area residents on the potential impacts of mega-data centers, while pushing for increased governmental transparency in any related agreements.
“I’m not against data centers, I’m not against AI, but there’s ways that they can make them kind to the environment,” Bethel said, “If they have a billion dollars to invest in a building, then they should be able to make it more earth friendly, more environmentally friendly.”
A data center is the physical facility that stores digital data and contains computing machines and related equipment, including the computing infrastructure that information systems require such as servers, data storage drives and network equipment. Today’s massive data center expansion is largely fueled by the global rise in Artificial Intelligence, with stand-alone campuses or mega-data centers expanding.
Ohio has the sixth-most data centers in the U.S., with 194 as of January, according to the Data Center Map.
Larger facilities consume massive amounts of energy, leading to concerns related to increased energy costs for residents and businesses in the region. They also often use large amounts of water for cooling.
No entirely new data center facilities are set to be built in Springfield, though the former LexisNexis data center, owned by the 5C Group, is transitioning into a commercial-scale data center that will also rent out space to multiple companies at 601 Benjamin Drive in the Prime Ohio development at the southeastern edge of the city. The Constant Company LLC’s Vultr product will rent out building space and Crusoe Energy Systems is also planning a data center in Springfield.
The data center is 75 megawatts. According to the city, the site will be developed in phases and will only move into each new phase after infrastructure and utility capacity are confirmed and the facility will not “come online until all supporting systems are fully in place and approved.”
It will use a closed-loop system, which means water will be reused for cooling. Usage will be monitored, regulated and capped, according to the city.
“(With) a closed-loop system, you still have to bleed the system. It’s supposed to be cleaned out. So, sure it’s a minimal amount that they’re going to be with sludge, junk they’ve got to clean out, but it gets disposed of into the sink into the sewer, into our sewer system, so back into the water supply,” Rexroth said, “They cannot be filtered out. Like that is unequipped like they can’t not be filtered out. So, when they can’t be filtered out and you’re going to keep putting more in there, it accumulates. This is where it comes to; we may not have to deal with it in our lifetime, but our children or our grandchildren are.”
City commissioners previously approved a 15-year 100% Enterprise Zone property tax abatement from 2028-2042 in the area of that data center. Enterprise zones are specific plots of land where businesses can receive tax exemptions on eligible new investment, according to the Ohio Department of Development.
Data centers, like the 5C data center, can bring jobs and economic investment to communities. The 5C center will bring hundreds of construction and indirect jobs during development, with 120 planned full-time, permanent jobs.
The group estimates an up to $1.3 billion total investment and to generate more than $14 million in annual payroll, with employees averaging a $127,000 salary. The center will be completed in late 2027 if financing and construction move forward.
Rexroth and Bethel are seeing support from a wide variety of people.
“It is like every race, every gender, every religion, every age,” Bethel said. “Some of the older people, they don’t understand it but then we explain it to them and they’re like, ‘No, we don’t want that.’ ”
They meet with the Conserve Ohio group on a weekly basis and now have “a couple hundred” signatures, Rexroth said. Very few people they’ve met have expressed that they are completely for mega-data centers.
“Obviously we can’t stop innovation; we cannot stop that, but let’s do it responsibly,” Rexroth said.
Younger people in particular are the most concerned about the water use and potential pollution, Rexroth said.
Springfield’s median income is $47,143, according to the U.S. Census, and many cannot afford higher utility bills along with property tax and other increases, Rexroth said.
“People are literally going without heat in their homes — elderly people — because they can’t afford this stuff,” Rexroth said.
Thus far, Bethel and Rexroth said they have not had much interest from any local or state representatives.
The two have spoken at multiple Springfield City Commission meetings during the public comment period, sharing their concerns.
Rexroth being a former nurse and Bethel being a current nurse, the two are concerned about health impacts from data center emissions.
This includes from noise pollution, which is a major concern related to data centers. Braxton Boren, associate professor of audio technology at American University and expert on noise related to data centers, said most municipal noise codes are not set up to deal with data centers.
Data centers frequently emit a low frequency hum, often from cooling fans, and sometimes a higher frequency tone comes from backup diesel generators, Boren said.
Data centers cooled by water are much quieter, which is used less often due to the higher cost, Boren said. Cooling by fans emits a white noise that can travel around corners and barriers, resulting in a low frequency hum that can sometimes be heard a mile away.
Boren recommends that noise from data center be measured in C-weighted decibels to pick up the low frequencies, rather than A-weighted decibels, which place more weight on higher frequencies. Most noise limits don’t take C-weighted decibels into account and sound studies would likely find noisy data centers in compliance, Boren said.
Long-term low frequency noise can have negative cardiovascular effects and lead to increased cortisol, sleep deprivation and general annoyance, Boren said. Low frequency sounds have effects on wildlife, too, Boren said, pointing to a case in which male birds shifted the frequency range of their mating calls to be heard by females.
“Not everyone will notice it (the sound) but because it spreads so far it’s over a large geographic area so then even if it’s a small negative effect, the aggregate effect can actually be quite large just because of the huge range we’re talking about,” Boren said.
Duo gather signatures, work to educate on potential impacts of such structures.