The rapid expansion of data centers is raising concerns over the permanent loss of prime agricultural land and the immense strain on local power and water resources. Jonathon Coppess, a University of Illinois agricultural policy expert, says local county boards shouldn’t have to face pressure, alone, from multi-billion-dollar tech companies wanting to build facilities.
“This is a societal issue that we need to be discussing and honestly, I think there’s a good reason to put the brakes on until we figure out what we’re doing and what these things are doing. So, it’s not fair to put this on a local government, but certainly zoning regulations can be used and can help. Of course, the pressure on a local government is extraordinary. But the amount of land that these take up, the amount of water, and the enormous electricity costs these things—like I think one of these things is the size of a city and its electricity demand.”
Coppess is particularly concerned about the data-centers being cited on land zoned for agricultural use.
“Once you build a data center, that data center is maybe good for a few years. Farmland’s ruined forever. You never get to grow a crop on that again. And so I just think there’s a whole lot of these questions that are really difficult that we as a society should be talking about and thinking about, and I think we’re going to have a lot of regret if we just allow this unchecked build-out and consumption of land and water and electricity.”
In Coppess’ view, citing of datacenters, because of the resource demands, is too much to ask of a board alone. He says while it could be handled by state legislators, this type of land-use question will ultimately need to be addressed by the federal government.