The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau has called for a temporary moratorium on data centre development in the state, so that lawmakers can study the facilities' effects on communities, give small municipalities the resources to deal with them and better protect farmland, Farm and Dairy reports. The call comes in a 23-page policy paper released this month.
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection lists 25 confirmed data centre projects going through permitting, and more than 40 have been proposed. The paper's author, Andy Bater, a state board director of the Farm Bureau and a switchgrass grower from Centre County, spent time with farmers affected by data centre infrastructure in Luzerne, Fayette and Union counties.
"The agricultural impact of a data center cannot be measured simply by the acreage occupied by the facility," Bater said. Data centres bring transmission lines, power plants and cooling systems, and transmission line proposals to power them have increased in Pennsylvania and West Virginia over the past year. Construction can compact productive soil, alter drainage and damage conservation work; towers, access roads and rights-of-way can cut across contour farming, strip cropping and grassed waterways, while overhead conductors restrict aerial application and towers obstruct machinery.
Bater argues that policy should assess agricultural effects farm by farm, and that the use of eminent domain for such projects needs updating. He points to Senate Bill 225, introduced by Cris Dush, which would compensate businesses and farms that lose value on land taken for development. The paper also raises water and noise, noting that cattle can show avoidance behaviour, a raised heart rate and other signs of stress in response to noise.
Small rural townships face the hardest task, the paper says, because they run on small staffs, part-time solicitors and volunteers, and their council members are often affected farmers who may have to step aside from a vote. "A small municipality can therefore lose some of its most knowledgeable agricultural voices precisely when that knowledge is most needed," Bater said.
Bater says the country "needs data centers" for artificial intelligence, research, healthcare and national security, and credits steps already taken, including Governor Josh Shapiro's GRID standards and the Public Utility Commission's large-load tariff. A pause, he argues, would give the state time to build a coherent framework before the development and its infrastructure become harder to redirect. The report is by Liz Partsch.
Source: Farm and Dairy
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