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Data centers have become a high-stakes battleground. Amid the growing demand for AI infrastructure, residents are being affected Water shortages, high electricity bills and environmental risks It has increasingly clashed with developers. Community backlash, including among local and federal officials, has led to project delays and, in some cases, cancellation.
Now, an online interactive hub launched by environmental activist Erin Brockovich could give everyday people a louder voice in the data center conversation. He became Brockovich Well known To fight Pacific Gas & Electric over water pollution in Hinkley, California, with A Hollywood movie From 2000 on her activity starring Julia Roberts.
In the middle Brockovich AI Data Center Reports website It is a collective interactive map of AI data centers, including those already in place, as well as those proposed or currently under construction: a total of 3,674 locations reported. Anyone can submit a report about a problem in the data center through the online form. Brockovich personally checks all submitted reports, removing duplicates and excluding reports without zip codes from the map.
The interactive map compiled on the Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting website currently includes 3,674 community-reported data center locations across the country. This includes data centers that have been built, those under construction, and proposed projects.
“Erin is really interested in the map being self-reported so that everyone who submits their story can be seen and heard,” said Susan Boothby, an author who worked with Brockovich on her last book and executive editor of her Substack magazine. Brockovich Report.
According to Pew researchthere are at least 3,000 operating data centers in the United States, and as many as 1,500 more are in the works. An FAQ on the site notes that the map is not intended to include every data center in the country, but instead focuses on locations where community members are actively voicing their concerns.
One of the hardest things for someone “facing environmental threats in their own backyard is feeling like no one is listening,” Boothby told CNET via email.
Data centers have a transparency problem
According to a May 27 post titled If data centers are so great, why are they built in secret?In late April, Brockovich asked people to submit their concerns and information about data centers in their areas. It received a “flood” of responses, and over the next month, the sitemap was filled with 2,716 pins from 3,862 reports.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich wrote about water pollution in her book Superman Won’t Come. It now handles data centers.
One topic kept recurring.
“The single most common concern — more than noise, more than water use, more than high utility bills — is the one word that keeps coming up in submission after submission: transparency,” Brockovich wrote.
She said the secrecy surrounding data center projects leaves residents with little say in developments that can have major impacts on where they live and work, including noise, Use of water and electricity and potential health effects. The post received comments from more than 200 readers, with one saying: “Thank you for standing up to the powerful!!!!” Another comment noted that AI consumes resources and contributes to job losses and economic disruption, saying: “Doesn’t seem like a great ‘deal’ to me.”
The rapid expansion of data centers across the country to accommodate AI computing needs has become a focal point of opposition against Big Tech, with some giants such as SpaceX discusses plans to build it in space.
On June 1, Oracle and OpenAI Break the ground At the $16 billion AI data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, which sparked community protests. Backpedaling on proposals for new data centers has led to political disagreements over whether states can restrict them.
Nearly a dozen states are considering halting data center construction. In Maine, lawmakers passed the first statewide ban on facilities consuming more than 20 megawatts of electricity, but they will be imposed later. It was overturned By Governor Janet Mills.
A Recent Gallup Poll I found that a majority of Americans oppose data centers.
Responding to a national issue
The Brockovich Center aggregates news stories and videos on specific sites and projects, including… Several photos Data centers are under construction. One photo shows a cleared agricultural site in Bowling Green, Ohio, making way for a complex. The site also includes Main concerns About AI data centers and How communities respondwith a list of areas where moratoriums were passed or where voters took action.
Boothby said the information gives people a place to voice their opinions, especially those who have become frustrated with the bureaucracy of dealing with federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Natural Resources.
“This map gives them a voice and hopefully sparks a larger conversation so we can all see that this issue doesn’t happen in one town here or there. It’s a national issue,” Boothby said.
