The New Pollution Is Data, And It's Coming to a Town Near You

I've Launched A New Map To Track AI Data Centers & How They Are Impacting Our Communities.

Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash

I’ve spent decades fighting for communities left in the dark about the very pollution destroying their health. They had no idea they were being poisoned. When they asked questions, they were told that what was happening in their water, their air, their soil was fine. It wasn’t fine then. And what’s happening right now, town by town across this country, deserves the same scrutiny.

The race to build AI infrastructure is real, and it’s moving fast. Data centers are going up in industrial parks, on the edges of neighborhoods, sometimes right next to schools. Some communities are welcoming them. Others are fighting back.

A whole lot of people in between don’t even know what’s happening, until the permits are already signed.

That’s exactly why I launched the AI Data Center Reporting Map yesterday. Within hours of going live, we were flooded, and I mean flooded, with submissions from communities across the country. So many people reported in so fast that the system briefly couldn’t keep up. That response tells me this issue is far more widespread and urgent than anyone in power is admitting.

This new map is intended to give us all a bird’s-eye view. It shows where these centers are operating, where they’re being built, and where communities like yours are already raising alarms. Go look at it. Report your concerns. Because the first step to protecting your community is knowing what’s in it.

Learn more here —> Brockovich Data Center

What’s the Problem, Exactly?

A data center is a physical facility that houses and runs large computer systems. Right now, Virginia, Texas, and California lead in the number of data centers they house. Companies choose data center locations based on many factors, like the availability of power and water, properly zoned land, and high-quality network access.

Let me be clear about something: this is not about attacking AI. AI isn’t going away, and honestly, it can be a powerful tool, even for answering some of the very questions we’re raising here.

The issue is about living in communities that support our well-being. We need to make sure that the infrastructure powering AI doesn’t come at the expense of the people living around it.

Here’s what I’m hearing from communities coast to coast:

Energy. These facilities consume enormous amounts of power. That doesn’t just mean higher utility bills; it means pressure on the grid, and in some places, pressure to bring in more fossil fuel generation to keep up. In Maine, the prospect of spiking electricity rates was one of the biggest reasons lawmakers moved to pump the brakes.

Water. Cooling systems for data centers can require staggering volumes of water. In drought country, such as California and the Southwest, that’s a major concern. And it’s not just the quantity. Remember Hinkley? The contaminated water that ran through those swamp coolers? Data centers are already being flagged for emitting PFAS plumes. We’ve seen this movie before.

E-waste. The hardware inside these facilities gets upgraded constantly. What happens to what’s left behind? Not enough people are asking that question.

Fire and safety. A fire at a lithium battery storage facility near Monterey reminded everyone: these aren’t neutral facilities. They need buffers. They need distance from homes and schools. They need to be somewhere that, if something goes wrong, it doesn’t become a community catastrophe.

Jobs vs. resources. Here’s the math that nobody wants to say out loud: data centers consume huge amounts of local resources including power, water, land, and they create very few permanent local jobs. Communities deserve to weigh that trade-off with open eyes. When developers come to your town promising an economic boom, ask them how many permanent positions they’re actually committing to. Then get it in writing.

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What Can You Actually Do About It?

Here’s where I want to talk directly to city councils, county commissioners, and every concerned community member who thinks they don’t have any power. You have more power than you think.

Zoning and Land Use — Your Most Powerful Tool

Cities decide where these facilities are allowed to go. Full stop. You can restrict data centers to industrial zones only. You can require conditional use permits (CUPs) that force case-by-case approval, giving your community a seat at the table for every single project. You can set distance buffers, keeping these facilities away from housing, away from schools, away from sensitive areas. This slows projects down and gives you leverage to impose conditions. Use it.

Water Permitting, Especially if You’re in California

Water permitting authority is enormous, and in drought-affected states, it may be the single most effective lever you have. Cities can limit or deny high water-use cooling systems. You can also require that facilities use only recycled or non-potable water. Cap water usage and force detailed impact studies before a single permit is issued. Require air cooling or closed-loop systems. In the right circumstances, water restrictions alone can stop or redirect a project entirely.

Environmental Review

In California, CEQA exists for exactly this kind of situation. Projects can be challenged on energy use, emissions, water consumption, and noise because yes, data centers run fans around the clock, and that’s not nothing for the families living nearby. Environmental review won’t always stop a project, but it can delay it by years and force meaningful redesigns. That time matters. Use it to organize.

Power & Grid Accountability

Your city doesn’t run the electrical grid, but you influence the approval process for what’s built to support it. Require proof that new facilities won’t be powered by new fossil fuel generation. Push utilities to disclose the source of electricity going to these facilities and the projected impact on local rates. Some states are already exploring requirements that new loads must be matched with clean energy. Find out where your state stands and push it forward.

Tax Incentives — Don’t Give Them Away for Free

A lot of these projects depend on tax breaks and fast-track approvals to pencil out financially. You can refuse those incentives. Or you can attach strings: local jobs guarantees, renewable energy commitments, and contributions to local infrastructure. Make them earn it. Maine just passed a law prohibiting data centers from accessing the state’s business development tax incentive programs, and it’s a model other states and localities should follow.

Show Up & Speak Out

I cannot overstate how much community pressure matters. More than 140 local groups around the country have managed to block or delay more than $64 billion worth of data center investment, not by hiring expensive lobbyists, but by showing up.

Attend the public hearings. Bring your neighbors. Make your city council understand that their constituents are watching. The elected officials who sit on those councils are accountable to you, and you can remind them of that.

Maine: A Lesson in How Close We Can Get

Maine’s legislature made history earlier this month. Lawmakers gave final approval to a moratorium on data centers larger than 20 megawatts, what would have been the first statewide ban of its kind in the country, blocking new projects until November 2027. The bill passed with bipartisan support. That alone should tell you something: this isn’t a left or right issue. It’s a people issue.

The debate focused on the real trade-offs. On one hand, there were the potential benefits to a former mill town desperate for economic reinvestment, and on the other was the documented impacts on electricity rates, water supplies, and communities across other states where these centers have already landed.

Then the governor vetoed it.

Governor Janet Mills said she would have signed the bill, she called a moratorium “appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates,” but vetoed it because the final version lacked an exemption for a specific project in the Town of Jay, a former mill community still reeling from major job losses.

So let me be clear about what happened in Maine: the governor didn’t say the moratorium was wrong. She said the bill needed one carve-out, the legislature wouldn’t add it, and she pulled the plug. Maine Conservation Voters said she was “siding with AI data center developers over the bipartisan will of the Maine Legislature.” Source: Maine Public

That’s not a reason to give up. That’s a reason to get more organized. Because the next vote, in Maine or in your state or city, could go the other way.

Even a governor who vetoed the moratorium felt compelled to sign legislation stripping tax incentives for data centers and promised to establish a commission to draft new regulations. The pressure is working. Keep applying it.

Without a statewide moratorium, data center proposals are now moving forward in multiple Maine communities with local residents left to fight these battles one permit at a time. That’s exactly the situation we’re trying to prevent everywhere else.

Don’t wait for your state to act. Start at your city council. Start tonight.

A Note on What Comes Next

Some of these fights will end up in court. If your community has already experienced pollution, contamination, or health impacts tied to a data center, document everything. Future litigation around data centers is coming. The pattern is too familiar.

For our friends in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the same dynamics are playing out in your communities too. The goal isn’t to ban these facilities outright.

The most effective strategy, everywhere, is to slow the expansion and force it to be done right: conditional use permits, strict water limits, distance buffers, and environmental reviews. Find the balance.

Don’t let urgency become an excuse to skip accountability.

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Take Action

Report & Track

• Brockovich Data Center Map — report your community’s concerns and see what’s happening nationwide

Toolkits & Organizing

• NAACP: Stop Dirty Data Centers — community benefits agreement templates, guides, and the People’s Report

• Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development — free Data Center Resistance 101 Toolkit and connections to other fighting communities

Read the Research

• Data Center Watch: The $64B Pushback — case studies on how communities have successfully blocked and delayed projects

• Harvard Gazette: Why Communities Are Pushing Back — expert analysis on the jobs myth and the transparency gap

• CNN: The Moratorium Movement — how the fight went statewide

Track Legislation in Your State

• MultiState: State Data Center Policy 101 — updated 2026 guide to moratoriums, tax incentive battles, and zoning fights across all 50 states

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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. Go to brockovichdatacenter.com, check the map, and report what you’re seeing. We’ll keep updating on you on everything we learn and ways to continue to advocate for sustainable, secure, and efficient AI data center practices.