{"id":205479,"date":"2026-05-01T13:38:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205479"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:39:12","slug":"205479","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/05\/01\/205479\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident shares data center concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To the Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a community, we share many concerns about the potential addition of a Data Center. Many of our concerns and questions remain unaddressed. While the addition of an information website (vanwertohiodatacenter.com<\/u><\/a>) was a fine first step in helping address some of the questions the local community has, the website went into very little detail on some of the major issues, and the website comes across more as a political advertisement, as it only went into the positives of the data center while avoiding any of the possible negative outcomes that will be a part of any data center project. This perception isn\u2019t helped by the fact local residents are currently receiving pro data center fliers in the mail while they have a nearly 7 minute long, professionally made video advertisement that is being pushed towards them on sites like Youtube. There seems to be a lot of work and money being put towards selling this Data Center to people in Van Wert, while very little work has been done to share the possible pitfalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the major areas of concern for residents has been over water usage. The big response to these concerns has been that the Data Center will rely on a \u201cClosed Loop System\u201d that will not draw water from our local supply. However, there has been little information shared about what a Closed Loop System really is. What we do know about closed loop systems through publicly available information is that while they help reduce water evaporation, they also involve adding acidic and toxic chemicals to the water inside the system. This water\/chemical mixture cannot be used in perpetuity, and it needs to be withdrawn and replaced from the system over time. Unfortunately for residents, it appears that the Ohio EPA will be moving to deregulate what data centers do with their wastewater, with upcoming changes to regulations allowing data centers to dump this water cooling slurry directly into our water table, affecting local wells and streams. So an important question to answer here is, what will the data center do with this wastewater, and what recourse will we have if this wastewater ends up in our agriculture and drinking supply? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another issue of major concern has surrounded the noise from the facility. It has been nice to hear that local leaders have taken the opportunity to visit operating data centers around Ohio and Michigan. But as far as it’s been reported, visits have taken place at midday, where any noise from these data centers was competing with street and industrial noise. That begs the question if any local leaders have planned trips to gauge the noise levels around these facilities late at night and if any plans are being made to judge the noise levels when these facilities are running their generators. Noise concerns shouldn\u2019t be brushed aside simply because \u201cmopeds that drive by my house are louder than what these are.\u201d Even slight noise, which will be delivered 24\/7, should be of concern to local leaders, as it will be an issue of great concern for locals who end up living near this data center. The important question here is, what recourse will local residents have if noise levels become too much, even in instances where they technically are in compliance with local noise ordinances?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also concerns being shared about energy prices and air quality. It’s good to hear that the company building the data center will be responsible for installing the necessary energy infrastructure, limiting the increase in energy prices for locals. Having said that, the idea that this data center will not lead to increased energy prices seems far-fetched. It’s common knowledge at this point that data centers are energy hogs. With all the proposed projects in the state, we are expecting energy requirements to increase by nearly 800% by 2030. This energy demand has already resulted in inflated energy prices in other communities across the state and country, which has resulted in data centers relying on their \u201cemergency generators” as de facto energy sources, with some data centers running their generators 24\/7. To avoid going back to the issues surrounding noise, it’s important to think about what effect constant industrial diesel generator use will have on local air quality. Simply relying on a blanket statement that the generators will meet Ohio EPA standards doesn\u2019t cut it. The Ohio EPA operates with business interests in mind well before it ever considers the health of locals. What recourse will we have if constant generator use leads to air quality issues? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tax dollars are great. But there has been little information on where these taxes will come from and where they will go. It seems that property taxes will be going to the Lincolnview School District, even though the data center will be located inside the Van Wert City limits and it’s the city residents that will have to deal with the majority of the negative consequences from a new data center. We also know a large chunk of the tax dollars will come from the temporary and permanent jobs, despite the prospective job numbers that are coming from the data center company likely being overstated by some degree. There are so many questions that need to be answered surrounding possible tax income. What guarantee do we have that this facility will produce the number of jobs it is promising? How many of these jobs will go to Van Wert residents? What, if any, tax breaks have we given this company to build in Van Wert? What percentage of tax dollars will be earned through revenue produced by this facility? How much of the estimated $200 million in tax revenue over 20 years relies on projected revenue numbers? How much revenue are data centers across the state actually producing? What happens if AI doesn\u2019t take off like Silicon Valley is promising it will?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I don\u2019t want anyone to believe that I am anti-progress. Our local, state, and national economies are always changing. We as a community need to be open to change. But our city and county officials also need to do everything in their power to research ALL of the positive and negative impacts of any new industry on the local community, and present that information to the community in an unbiased manner. None of the local backlash aimed at this data center should have caught any of our local leaders by surprise. We have a long history of opposition to large projects in the city and county. Many of our local leaders hold their elected positions because they lead the charge to slow and\/or stop projects that involved creating renewable energy infrastructure, with most complaints revolving around sound pollution, revenue\/tax income, health impacts, and questions involving property values, all issues at play with this data center project. At the same time, we have watched local communities and schools benefit from these same projects that we fought against. It would be a disservice to the community to simply succumb to the current public opposition. This opportunity needs to be reviewed thoroughly, and treated seriously. As our local leaders have clearly stated, this is a once in a generation opportunity for our city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, I believe that it is within everyone’s best interest to hold a vote on a temporary memorandum, putting a halt towards this project for a period of 6 to 12 months. During this time, local government and business leaders should work with the community to ensure ALL information, both positive and negative, is discussed, weighed, and measured. Third party auditors should be given time to research the impacts on our local water, energy, and noise pollution. We should have an opportunity to hear from knowledgeable representatives from the company that will run the data center, and these representatives should meet with us at a future town council meeting to discuss these issues. Only after this work has been done do I believe it would be appropriate for the town council to make a final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the Editor, As a community, we share many concerns about the potential addition of a Data Center. Many of our concerns and questions remain unaddressed. While the addition of an information website (vanwertohiodatacenter.com) was a fine first step in helping address some of the questions the local community has, the website went into very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 08:34:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205481,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205479\/revisions\/205481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}